Every year biomass is becoming more and more popular as a raw material in the thermal energy sector. On 30th March this year, our Association, as part of the ENTRAIN project, organised a training on quality management in biomass-fired district heating plants.
The event started with a short welcome and introduction of the participants to the topic of the meeting and the scope of the ENTRAIN project, its results and implemented activities were presented. Then the issue of quality management was raised, which consists of supervising all the activities and tasks that must be performed to maintain the desired level of quality in specific companies and organisations. The guidelines of ISO 9001, the principles, objectives and benefits of its implementation were presented, and examples were given of existing heating plants that have already implemented a quality management system in their enterprises.
The following presentation showed the Austrian quality management system QM Holzheizwerke and its adaptation to Polish conditions. It introduces participants to the history of the development of this system, describes its usefulness and describes the main objectives and qualitative benefits of using the system in biomass heating plants. The milestones in the quality management process were then presented: initial meetings, project implementation planning, tender and cooperation planning, drawing up an optimisation concept, and a final inspection by a quality management specialist. Participants also had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with key documents and useful tools supporting the planning of the development of small-scale district heating systems based on renewable sources.
The next presentation dealt with the implementation of a quality management system in biomass heating plants, using the example of Austria. Good practices of district heating plants that have implemented the Holzheizwerke QM system and thus become more profitable and environmentally friendly were presented.
We would like to thank all participants for taking part in the event. We hope that it was valuable for you and that it will inspire positive changes in the Polish heating sector.
We also encourage you to read materials from the training courses organised within the ENTRAIN project.
To access the presentations and materials, please enter the password you received in the email sent after the event. For those of you who did not attend the event but are interested in receiving presentations, please contact our office: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The following presentations cannot be shared or published without the permission of the Association.
Presentations:
- Quality management in heating plants powered by RES , Anna FIJAS, Association of Municipalities Polish Network "Energie Cités"
- QM Holzheizwerke and its adaptation to Polish conditions (tools and guidelines supporting the implementation of a quality management system in a district heating plant) , Patrycja PŁONKA, Association of Municipalities Polish Network "Energie Cités"
- Good practices - implementation of QM Holzheizwerke in European biomass heating plants on the example of Austria , Bartłomiej SMENDA, Association of Municipalities Polish Network "Energie Cités"
Recording
Questions asked by participants and answers from Austrian partners:
- What parameters do district heating networks operate on? What are the flow and return temperatures in Austrian installations?
Values from Austrian database show that biomass DH networks mainly (still) are operated with flow temperatures in the range of 75°C to 95°C and return temperatures between 45°C and 60°C. However, there are still only few systems which reach return temperatures below 50°C.
- Can you provide examples of district heating network with heat pumps in a small town?
Just recently we had an excursion to a biomass DH plant with a newly installed absorption heat pump (for flue gas condensation) in Straß in Styria. A further example is Wagrain in Salzburg, where also an absorption heat pump is operated for flue gas condensation at a biomass DH plant. Very good experiences have already been made with the operation of the heat pump there, with outstanding results regarding the increase of the overall plant efficiency.
- How is the suitable temperature of hot water achieved in low-temperature systems?
In Austria there is no example of a biomass DH system with a low-temperature network up to date. For hot water production in such systems either direct electric heaters or compression heat pumps (electrically driven) could be used.
