Call: 0845 873 8612


Call: 0845 873 8612
enquiries@sigss.co.uk

Biomass Systems

What is Biomass?

Biomass refers to the use of a wide variety of organic material such as wood or straw, for the generation of space heat and / or hot water used within a building. Essentially organic plant materials capture the sun’s energy during photosynthesis, which is released as energy when burned.
 

Key Features and Benefits:
 
The difference between biomass and fossil fuels is one of time scale. Biomass takes carbon out of the atmosphere while it is growing, and returns it as it is burned. The new crop growth takes up CO2 from the atmosphere at the same time as it is released by combustion of the previous harvest. This process maintains a closed carbon cycle with no net increase in atmospheric CO2 levels.
 
Biomass technology is both practical and scalable and may be readily introduced into both commercial and residential buildings.
 
Biomass for Heating
 
Biomass heating systems vary considerably in size, from a simple in room residential stove to a large commercial boiler for example, installed at Stansted Airport. Residential biomass boilers can be installed in new build and existing properties. They are a very effective way of providing space heat and hot water. A new generation biomass boiler is very easy to install and operate and can be connected to virtually any existing heating system. Instead of burning the rapidly diminishing supply of fossil fuels, biomass boilers burn wood chip, wood pellet or cereals.
 
Commercially, a biomass heating system can be scaled up and extended to provide district heating, where several buildings are heated from the same boiler. District heating makes use of scaled cost advantages of buying in material, as well as the administrative benefits of using a single boiler installation to provide heat to a number of buildings. These might be a number of individual houses, blocks of social housing, local council offices, a school, hospital etc.
 
Boilers that burn biomass fuels such as wood chips and pellets tend to be physically larger and more expensive than equivalent gas or oil boilers. This is partly as a result of the physical requirements for a high temperature combustion environment and partly the logistical aspects of transporting and storing the solid fuel. As boilers get larger however the disparity with gas and oil boilers becomes comparatively smaller and so wood fuel becomes more economically attractive, especially for installations of the scale of a few hundred kW.
 
Our service

At SIG Sustainable Solutions we have access to an extensive range of biomass energy generating products to suit your particular project requirements. Our experienced team will take you step by step through the process, from establishing your initial needs right through to developing the specification and installing the most appropriate solution.

If you would like more information on this range of products please call us on 0845 873 8612 between the hours of 8.30am - 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am - 5.00pm on Friday.