Workshop rationale and aim

Most recently, fine particulate pollution gave rise to debate in numerous European countries as concentration limits were overstepped more frequently and more clearly than in the past. Urban areas were especially affected. Industry, traffic, agriculture and residential heating proof mainly responsible for high fine particulate emission levels. In Austria for instance, within the residential heating sector small-scale biomass combustion plants are responsible for about 88% of the PM₁₀ emissions, most of them (about 86%) are poorly controlled old biomass combustion systems.

Compared to oil or natural gas, biomass contains a considerable amount of ash. This inevitably leads to fly ash emissions during combustion. In medium and large-scale biomass combustion systems fly ash emissions are typically efficiently precipitated by appropriate filters (ESP or baghouse filters). Small-scale (residential) biomass combustion plants however, are not equipped with filters due to economic reasons and the immature status of the technology. Fly ash emissions of complete biomass combustion, which is usually achieved by modern and automatically controlled small-scale biomass combustion plants, consist mainly of inorganic aerosols and are related to the PM1 fraction (particulate matter with a particle size smaller 1.0 µm). Carbonaceous aerosols are a product of incomplete combustion, which is often the case in poorly controlled old biomass combustion systems or natural draught systems (like chimney stoves or tiled stoves), and consist of elementary carbon (soot) or condensed hydrocarbon compounds (organic aerosols). Moreover, old residential heating systems emit considerably higher PM1 emissions than modern small-scale biomass combustion systems. The formation of carbonaceous aerosols can be notably reduced by technical measures concerning combustion and process control technology (primary measures). The formation of inorganic aerosols however cannot be significantly prevented in the same way but needs new “Low-Dust combustion” technologies or requires secondary measures such as dust precipitators.

Fine particulate matter is the thoracic fraction out of total particulate matter, i.e. the fraction that can pass the larynx and reach the lung. There is strong epidemiologic indication that particulate matter in air has serious adverse health effects, but there are also indications that there exist considerable differences regarding the toxicological effects between inorganic aerosols and carbonaceous aerosols, which is of great relevance for the environmental evaluation of different small-scale biomass combustion technologies.

The workshop accommodated the aforementioned issues by its three key topics "Low-Dust combustion technologies", "Small-scale precipitators" and "Health effects" and thus gave a comprehensive overview of ongoing developments and recent findings.The event took place as a parallel session within the 3^rd Central European Biomass Conference 2011 in Graz, Austria.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTATIONS

Presentations

Time	Topic	Lecture / speaker
14:00	Welcome address	Martina Ammer Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, Vienna, Austria
14:05	Introduction	Chairman: Ingwald Obernberger
14:10	Low-dust technologies	The effect of gasification-combustion technology on emissions Jorma Jokiniemi, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
14:40	Low-dust technologies	Primary measures for low-dust combustion - relevant findings Thomas Brunner, BIOS BIOENERGIESYSTEME Gmbh, BE2020+ GmbH, Graz, Austria
15:10	Low-dust technologies	Reduction of particle emissions by using additives Linda S. Bäfver, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Boras, Sweden
15:40	Small-scale precipitators	Evaluation of small-scale precipitators in Denmark - results of lab- / field tests Ole Schleicher, FORCE Technology, Brøndby, Denmark
16:10		Coffee break
16:30	Small-scale precipitators	Electrostatic precpitators for small-scale wood combustion systems - results from lab- and field tests Hans Hartmann, TFZ, Straubing, Germany
17:00	Small-scale precipitators	Characterisation of particles from wood combustion with respect to health relevance and electrostatic precipitation Thomas Nussbaumer, Verenum, Switzerland
17:30	Health effects	Development of a measurement methode for health effects of PM-emissions from biomass combustion and evaluation of results achieved Volker Lenz, German Biomass Research Center, Leipzig
18:00	Health effects	Influence of combustion conditions on the genotoxic potential of fine particle emissions from small-scale wood combustion Thomas Brunner, BE2020+ GmbH, Graz, Austria
18:30	Health effects	Health related toxicological effects of aerosols from small-scale biomass combustion systems Maija-Riitta Hirvonen, Department of Environmental Health, University of Eastern Finland
19:00	Closing	Chairman: Ingwald Obernberger

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