Verdo Renewables supplies wood pellets for the biomass boiler plant at Girvan Community Hospital in Scotland

In addition to its biomass boiler which burns wood pellets, other eco-friendly features at Girvan Community Hospital, one of Scotland's most eco-friendly public buildings, include a wind turbine, use of rainwater to flush toilets, a food waste vacuum system to dry and compost leftover food and low energy lighting.

Each of the hospital's main blocks are built with timber frame kits, where all the timber used is from sustainable sources. In addition, only construction materials with at least 10 per cent of recycled materials have been used and this includes insulation from recycled newspaper and concrete blocks from recycled aggregate.

Verdo Renewables has been appointed preferred supplier of wood pellets for the biomass boiler plant at Girvan Community Hospital. Wood pellets and briquettes are made by compressing dry sawdust or other wood residues under extremely high pressure. The combination of low moisture content (typically below 10%) and highly compressed material gives pellets a very high volume energy density, typically three to four times that of wood chips. They are also clean, consistent and flow easily, making them particularly attractive in domestic application. The significantly lower storage requirements compared with wood chips also make them attractive to urban applications such as city schools and office buildings. Briquettes can resemble a firelog in appearance and function, with improved storage, handling and combustion properties.

As a guide, a typical 3 bed house would require 4-5 tonnes of wood pellets per year for effective heating. Requirements for a typical school would be around 200-500 tonnes and for a typical hospital, 1000 - 2,000 tonnes per year. In all of the above examples, fuel costs (at current prices) would be approximately one third less, compared to an oil fired system.

Verdo Renewables' first delivery of 28 tonnes of wood pellets for the 700kW biomass boiler was delivered last week from Verdo's manufacturing plant in Grangemouth. It is estimated that the boiler at Girvan Community Hospital will require around 1,000 tonnes of wood pellets per year.

Verdo Renewables opened its brand new £10 million renewable fuels production plant in Grangemouth at the end of 2009 and earlier this year opened a similar facility in Andover, Hampshire. As well as manufacturing wood pellets for use in biomass heating systems, such as wood pellet boilers or pellet stoves, the company also produces wood briquettes for use in open fires and multi-fuel stoves.

The Verdo bagged pellets and wood briquettes are now available to both industrial and domestic customers through a network of fuel distribution outlets.

Alistair McGlynn, UK Sales Manager for Verdo Renewables said, "It is a particular pleasure for us at Verdo to secure this preferred supplier appointment for one of the country's most impressive, state of the art, environmentally friendly buildings. We are confident that these Verdo manufactured wood pellets will make a significant contribution to the hospital's twin aims of reducing its carbon footprint and lowering its energy bills."

Source: Eco Friend News