Biomass Power Plant Site Selection
The optimal site selection is extremely important for biomass power plant. Uncertainty composed of fuzziness and randomness is an important issue in the site selection under increasingly complex environments. Linguistic information is a powerful tool to express the fuzziness of information. This paper proposes the specialized decision framework of 200kW biomass power plant site selection. Firstly, a comprehensive information is established to meet the need of scientific and reasonable evaluation. Secondly, the paper combine revenues and expenses, the importance of each factor is calculated. Thirdly, this paper examines different set of power plants as variables to decision-making model which solves the bias, fully expresses numerical facts and reflects the economical states well, reduces missing information. Finally, the paper proposes the specialized decision framework of 200 kW biomass power plant site selection which clearly standardizes the decision-making process, provides the project managers with executable and real solutions.
Step 1: Selecting the Suitable Region (radius of 15 km)
Based on the national and regional potential studies suitable biomass hubs should be defined as the very first step. Due to the low energy content per volume and large quantities it is economically and energetically not useful to transport biomass feedstock further than 15 km. Thus, site should be located in a radius of less than 15 km from the available biomass sources. If the available biomass is mostly agricultural slurry, the maximum radius of supply should be less than 5 km.
Step 2: Selection of the Biomass Plant Neighbourhood (radius of 1 km)
Today, in most biomass stations the produced biogas is used directly on-site. It is most common to burn it in engines which produce electricity and heat (CHP Combined Heat and Power). However, in some specialized applications the biogas is only used for heating purposes.
Step 3: Selection of the Biomass Power Plant Site itself
Requirements towards the biomass plant site:
The characteristics of the plant site itself strongly influence the technical and economic feasibility of the project. Thus, the site itself has to be selected with upmost care along the following criteria.
Required size of the site:
Biomass plants are space intensive. A 500 kW biomass plant requires 4000 m² in this case that we are planning to build a 200kW biomass power plant, we can shoose a smaller area than the standard are mentioned above. This space is needed for the fermenters, the gas storage, electric generator and auxiliary facilities. If the biomass plant is operated on agricultural products the dependency on harvesting seasons requires a storage space of additional 5400 m². This figure is valid if energy intense biomass like maize is used. If less energy intense biomass is used (e.g. manure), even larger storage is required. Because of the high investment for such a storage shed, it has to be carefully evaluated if the storage facilities of the producing farming units could be used. In this case the biomass supply for the biomass plant would be stable over the year through a “just in time delivery”.
Adequate road access:
The biomass plant requires a steady supply and has an outflow of large quantities of biomass. Thus, a good road access is compulsory, namely: - Direct access to a main roads - Safe opening to the street which is suitable for heavy vehicles Site characteristics In the view of landscape protection it is recommended to prefer old industrial sites for the biomass plant instead of green fields. In any case it has to be ensured that the soil quality is suitable for the site construction. This means that:
- No soil contamination is to be expected under the surface.
- No instable underground conditions are predominant and require large additional investment to stabilise the biomass constructions.
Possible neighbourhood conflicts:
Emissions, particularly smell and noise emissions can not be avoided. Thus, the site has to be selected in view to possible conflicts with neighbouring areas. For analysing these potential conflicts a legal and a real level should be scrutinised:
On the legal level it should be analysed:
- Is any legal planning instrument enforced which prohibits the installation of a biomass plant?
- Is any legal planning instrument enforced which defines using purposes in this neighbourhood that might create conflicts (e.g. residential areas, areas of cultural heritage or nature protected areas)?
- Does any national legislation exists which creates certain prerequisites for biomass plants?
On the real level it should be analysed:
- Are there residential areas in the proximity? (this should be analysed in view to the prominent wind direction)
- Are there areas of natural or cultural importance in the proximity?
Step 4: Political Support
The installation of a biomass power plant is always a political issue. This is due to the strong attention renewable energies find in the public and in the media. Moreover, biomass plants carry the danger of neighbourhood conflicts and thus the development of such a project is well recognised within a local community. It is very important for the successful project development and implementation that significant support can be found between the stakeholders on municipal and regional level.