PRESS RELEASE: Bioenergy a driving force to achieve renewable heat, transport and electricity targets - IrBEA
Bioenergy - Inspiring the industry with opportunity and vision is the theme of the Irish Bioenergy Association National Bioenergy conference which is sponsored by Bord an Móna and takes place in Croke Park, Dublin last month. The conference focused on the untapped potential that Bioenergy presents in the form of biomass, biogas, biofuels, energy crops and wood fuels to achieve renewable energy targets in heat, transport and electricity.
Speaking at the conference Seán Finan CEO of IrBEA said “Mobilising Irish indigenous biomass and brash is crucial to achieving our Renewable Energy targets in both the electricity and heating sector. Addressing the challenges of mobilisation of our private forestry estate will need to be overcome. Bord na Móna, our conference premium sponsors is pleased to be helping unlock the biomass opportunity in Ireland as an outlet for material while helping to decarbonise Ireland's electricity grid.
The Renewable Heat agenda will be served by improving access to Irish biomass supplies, enabled by improvements to the biomass supply chain infrastructure from mobilisation of the Private Forestry supply and also the promotion of Energy Crops.
Tom Egan Head of Bioenergy Operations and Power Generation at Bord na Móna said “ Bord na Móna are leaders in the Irish biomass industry, and on an exciting transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy at its Edenderry Power Station in Co, Offaly. Edenderry Power is on a course towards 100% renewable electricity generation by as soon as 2024. The biomass contribution at Edenderry makes it the biggest supplier of ‘on-demand’ renewable energy on the island of Ireland.  This means that when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine Edenderry can guarantee a supply of renewable energy to the grid; this adds flexibility to the grid to install more wind and solar generation. 
Tom Egan concluded “Edenderry Power continues to transition towards ever increasing levels of biomass, which is sustainable, and 80% of which is indigenous  from local Irish suppliers.  This helps Bord na Móna continue to drive the economic and growth agenda in rural Ireland, the midlands and beyond -supporting what are sustainable jobs, sourcing sustainable Irish biomass feedstocks over the ‘Just Transition’ period and beyond. Bord na Móna uses mainly residual forest material (brash). Bord na Móna wants to secure increasing indigenous biomass from the well documented availability from private forestry and also want to help realise the energy crop opportunity that exists for farmers. 

HOFOR, Greater Copenhagen Utility, is the metropolitan area’s utility company. HOFOR is municipally owned, where the ownership of the water and wastewater services are shared between 8 municipalities.
Already in the 1980s Copenhagen community realized that something should be done about the air quality in the town and the avoidance of waste heat. The whole town was ploughed up to install district heating piping, that was getting its energy from a waste incinerating plant and the production of electricity at other plants just outside town.
At first the electricity was produced from natural gas and coal in different plants. First the natural gas plant was redesigned to burn wood pellets and finally a few years ago the big decision was taken to replace the coal fired station with a top of the line wet wood chips burning combined heat and power plant.
In 2019 the plant started production, annually using up to 1.2 million tonnes of wet wood chip (at least 45% moisture content). At the end of the commissioning period, finally this year January the plant reached 100% utilization, meaning that it produced 150 MW electricity and 370 MW of heat simultaneously.
The efficiency of the plant as expressed on the lower heating value of the fuel is well above 100%. This very high number can be achieved due to the fact that the plant uses the low temperature returning district heating water to cool the flue gasses. Once the flue gasses come below 65 degrees C, the evaporated water from the fuel condenses and releases the energy that was used to evaporate it. Not only the water that was evaporated will condense, but also the water that was generated by burning the wood. Wood is a carbohydrate and will form CO2 and water as the main constituents of the fuel gasses. The energy is transferred to the district heating water prior to be run through the boiler to be brought up to the normal running temperature.
Fortunately, the CHP plant is situated at a deep-water port, which makes it possible for even large ships to dock at the plant and transfer their chips directly into production. At the present rate of consumption a ship with between 4000 and 5000 tonnes of fuel is needed every day to keep the plant running. The storage capacity on site is limited to a few days of operation. A little bit of leeway can be obtained by receiving some roundwood (as deck cargo) which can be chipped on site in times of need.