Biomass_2

Awirs (Belgium)

A brief introduction to the engineer who’s going to be our guide, to the firm he works for (Laborelec, a subsidiary society of Electrabel, which belongs to the French giant ‘Electricité de France’) and to the specificity of the Power Station in Les Awirs.

Who supplies the pellets? What about olive pits, used in the past?
Burning wood biomass only produces a quantity of CO2 that is equivalent to the quantity of CO2 that was absorbed via photosynthesis during the life of the trees used to produce the pellets. So burning biomass is a neutral operation from an ecological point of view.

A quick comparaison of the efficiency of different sources of green energy.
A few comments about the future of wood biomass. Is burning wood biomass sustainable?

Videocasts 1-2-3

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints!

Laborelec ia a that belongs to in Paris. They are doing research into the development of : they are attempting to optimize the burning of into the furnace.

According to the engineer, biomass is only solutions to the issue of energy production. It could be a more satisfactory solution in countries like or Norway or Finland or Canada, because those countries are not very much and have huge sources of . That is why, according to him, biomass will never represent more than percent of all sources of energy to produce electricity. Even putting together all sources of energy (that is wind, sun, biomass, etc.), we’ll never cover the needs of electricity in a country like Belgium. In the future, Electrabel will develop the use of green energies, mainly , biomass and energies.

Over the last years, the emissions of NOX, CO2 and have been reduced . The emission of NOX has been reduced from 1200 milligrams /cubic meter to milligrams. As for the CO2, the limit is 200 milligrams and in les Awirs, they prersently reject 5 milligrams, and for dust, the limit was 200 milligrams and they now reject milligrams. All this is the result of the implementation of new burners, new automations and the use of a new , which is wood.
In Belgium, % of the electricity is produced in nuclear power stations. From the 40 %, 25 % is produced with turbines. And 15 % is produces with boilers, and some of them have been converted to boilers.

Videocasts 1-2-3

Multiple choice quiz

2005 in an important year for the power station in Les Awirs
1. because thay started burning olive pits
2. because they started burning wood
3. because they started burning wood pellets
In the Power Station in Les Awirs,
1. they use wood pellets mixed with coal
2. they use the energy developed in the burner only to produce electricity
3. because they use the energy developed in the burner not only to produce electricity but also to provide heating to the local community
In order to convert their coal Power Stations into a wood pellet power station, they have
1. received subsides from the Walloon region
2. received subsides from the European community
3. not received any subsidies from anywhere
Electricity produced with wood as source of energy is
1. less expensive than electricity produced with coal
2. clearly more expensive than electricity produced with coal
3. about as expensive as electricity produced with coal
At tha moment, the pellets used in Les Awirs come from
1. Holland
2. Local suppliers
3. Canada
The burning of biomass produces a certain quantity of CO2. That quantity
1. is equivalent to the C02 produced by the transportation of the biomass
2. is equivalent to the CO2 absorbed by the trees used to make the biomass during their whole lives
3. negligable

Go to the part 2