Recent Health and Safety Incident Trends Related to the Storage of Woody Biomass: A Need for Improved Monitoring Strategies

Sally Krigstin,Sylvain Volpe,Suzanne Wetzel,Christopher Helmeste,Sebnem Madrali,Joy Agnew,Nivatha Jayabala

doi:10.3390/f9090538

Abstract

Self-heating fires, dust explosions and off-gassing during biomass storage are serious hazards which can have devastating consequences, resulting in worker fatalities and health impacts, as well as bioenergy plant destruction and complete loss of production. A compilation of incident reports involving biomass storage from 2000–2018 has revealed that these potential hazards continue to be a major concern in the bioenergy sector. Higher occurrence rates were found for incidents categorized as self-heating fires and fires of uncertain causes in recent years through our study of online reports. This paper highlights a critical need for improved safety protocols for bioenergy plant workers, detailed incident documentation and enhanced biomass monitoring strategies to drastically reduce the occurrence of threats associated with the storage of woody biomass. In order to manage the high risks associated with self-heating, a system for real-time monitoring of internal pile temperature was investigated. A monitoring system supplied by Braingrid Corporation was verified using embedded Tinytag thermologgers indicating that this methodology shows potential for preventing spontaneous combustion events by providing real time temperature data for superior pile management.

Highlights

Expansion of the bioenergy sector has been driving the necessity for increased large-scale woody biomass storage capacity to ensure a stable supply of fuel can be provided for conversion processes.As storage requirements rise, the health and safety risks associated with storage of biomass, such as worker injuries due to respiratory illnesses, asphyxiation and fatalities, continue to pose serious risks due to spontaneous fires, dust explosions, off-gassing and biological hazards
(2015) showed that the number of major accidents in the bioenergy sector has been increasing in recent years [3], which reinforces the importance of risk awareness and safe practices in bioenergy production
The analysis of cumulative biomass storage incident reports demonstrated that there appears to be an anThe overall increase in storage occurring in recent recent years

Summary

Introduction

Expansion of the bioenergy sector has been driving the necessity for increased large-scale woody biomass storage capacity to ensure a stable supply of fuel can be provided for conversion processes.As storage requirements rise, the health and safety risks associated with storage of biomass, such as worker injuries due to respiratory illnesses, asphyxiation and fatalities, continue to pose serious risks due to spontaneous fires, dust explosions, off-gassing and biological hazards. Expansion of the bioenergy sector has been driving the necessity for increased large-scale woody biomass storage capacity to ensure a stable supply of fuel can be provided for conversion processes. Forests 2018, 9, 538 incident or event at an energy facility that led to either one or more deaths or at least $50,000 in property damage overtime”) and found that accidents occurred at moderate levels for the bioenergy sector compared to other renewable energy systems such as nuclear, hydro, and wind (higher risk systems) as well as solar and geothermal (lower risk) [2]. This study focuses on reported incidents encountered with the storage of woody biomass (hereby defined as wood chips, bark, wood pellets and saw dust) The data in a study by Moreno and Cozzani (2015) showed that the number of major accidents in the bioenergy sector has been increasing in recent years [3], which reinforces the importance of risk awareness and safe practices in bioenergy production.

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