Section Renewable Energy Sources and Clean Technologies

HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARDS OF BIOMASS STORAGE

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jana Müllerová

University of Zilina, Slovakia

ABSTRACT
Growing popularity of biomass fuel in Europe is connected to its label of green and
cheap renewable energy. Especially, wood pellets are very wanted and many times
unavailable during the winter months. On the other hand there several serious risks and
health and safety hazards related to biomass storage that cannot be ignored. Self ignition
and moulds inhalation are the most dangerous. To ignore safety aspects and official
regulations can lead to fatal injuries or huge material damages. Both bacterial or most
likely fungal diseases and biomass fires are very likely to occur especially within huge
biomass facilities. The paper gives overview of most likely risks, most dangerous
hazards related to biomass storage. Spontaneous auto-ignition, their conditions and self-
explosion as the most dangerous hazard is described. When three elements of fire
triangle or five elements of explosion pentagon are present at the time, there is a very
high risk of huge damage and fatal injuries. Several biomass facilities had been
destroyed in last decades in Europe and USA. The most frequent health risk according
global experiences and statistics measurements is connected to dangerous moulds in
wood chips. Typically Aspergillus Fumigatus causes serious health complication like
Aspergillosis, or various breath complications, lung and heart infections, asthmatic
problems etc. Aspergillosis is considered rare. Last very risky property if biomass is CO
release. There were several fatal injuries caused by concentred CO due to lack of air
ventilation in the storage rooms.
Keywords: Wood Pellets, self-ignition, Aspergillosis, CO.

INTRODUCTION
Biomass popularity has a rising trend within the Europe. The biomass share on
renewable energy sources is more than 67% within the EU 27. There are various types
of biomass. Biomass is biological material derived from living, or recently living
organisms. In the context of biomass for energy this is often used to mean plant based
material, but biomass can equally apply to both animal and vegetable derived
material[1]. The wide range of biomass plants is used as a fuel. From the households’
point of view, there are two most often used solid/fuel types with the most progressive
growth. Wood pellets and wood chips. There are many advantages of pellet use e.g.
greater energy efficiency (modern pellet boiler reach more than 90%), high calorific
value 17 MJ/ kg and low ash content (up to 1%), low water content (8% - 10%),
reduction of the volume - low demand for storage space (650 kg/m3), fully automatic
operation and control, very low pollutant emission, acceptable price per unit of heat, full
replacement for other types of fuel renewable source of energy for heating [2], [3].

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Also wood chips are used in huge amount to supply dwellings by heat and hot water.
Due to the wood chip character with low density and high water content, it is used
mostly in heat power plant of medium electric capacity.
1 SPONTANEOUS AUTO-IGNITION
There are three elementary conditions to be present for the of auto-ignition start.
Ignition source, oxygen and combustible dust have to be present at the same time. This
is so called fire triangle (Fig.1). Self-igniting based on biochemical processes are among
the most common causes spontaneous combustion. The essence of biological self-
ignition is a gradual increasing of temperature due to the activity of Microorganisms
(bacteria) which leads to heating. Especially wet plant materials have a great tendency
for this type of self-heating and consequent spontaneous combustion. Of agricultural
products are the most dangerous fire plant materials with cellulosic character such as
hay, straw, corn, hops, cotton, sawdust, feed, tobacco, etc. as easily subject to oxidation
and smoldering. Afterwards, ignition of material may occur in certain conditions
suitable for pyrolysis [4], [5].

Self-igniting progress in plant products, the heat required to raise the

oxidation reaction is supplied by biological processes called biological spontaneous
combustion.
There are three types of spontaneous combustion may occur in herbal products
described by Balog [4]. Firstly, technological processing of biomass products (drying,
milling, granulation etc.) may result in spontaneous combustion by heat released on hot
surfaces. Secondly, the chemical spontaneous combustion can occur for example when
these products are treated by colors or by other chemicals with tendency to spontaneous
combustion.
The third is the most common cause of fires in biological agriculture - spontaneous
combustion plant materials, which occur especially when storing roughage and other
plant products. At a temperature of about 70°C bacteria begin to die. Temperature is
already sufficient for the decay of some simpler plant substances that allow carbon
releasing. The carbon released works like the coal. It begins to oxidate and another
amount of coal is released, temperature of substance increases and at 250 to 300 °C
ignites the vegetable matter [4].

2 SELF EXPLOSION
The explosion happens when five basic elements are present at the same time:
combustible dust, oxygen in air, ignition, dust particulates dispersion and confinement
of dust clouds. Very serious even fatal consequences may happen, when those five
conditions meet.
There were serious explosion in wood pellet company. The explosion and fire happened
August 20th. 2013 at Inferno Wood Pellets Co. Rhode Island, US. One worker thrown 20
feet out was injured [6]. Another incidents happened in Sweden in Laxa pellets, 2010,
huge explosion destroyed a pellet silo, Esbjerg 85 m high silo collapsed after pellet fire
in 1998 [7]. More accidents were reported in relation to wood pellet auto-ignition and
consequent fire.

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Difference among Explossion and fire is just in adition of 2 elements of explosion

pentagram (Fig.1). Dispersion of dust particles and dust cloud must be present together
with three fire triangle conditions. Afterwards the explosion may occur with some
probability.

Fig. 1 Elementary conditions for fire and for explosion.

According the experimental studies several serious conclusions had been made. Firstly,
self heating was usually reported shortly after production of wood pellets. Heat
originally comes from oxidation of wood constituents. Some fuel qualities show higher
heating activity and can during unwanted conditions lead to spontaneous ignition.
Oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids proposed to be major heat source inside the
biomass (wood pellets)|. Experimental spontaneous ignitions occur within 35 hours in
1m3 wood pellets subjected to 105°C [7].
3 HEALTH RISKS
Fatal injuries risks by fires and explosions are obvious from above. There are two extra
high risk implied from biomass storage. Fungi and intoxication by CO and CO2 are very
risky in certain situations as described below.
3.1 ASPERGILLUS FUMIGATUS
Molds and fungi need for their life at least 20% humidity and temperature of minimum
3°C. [5], [8]. These basic conditions are met in every pile of fresh biomass, especially
wood chips including bark pieces. There were several cases of serious injuries reported
due to biological activity of molds, most often Aspergillus Fumigatus.
Aspergillus can cause the eye and ear infections, sometimes also lung and heart
infections. Species A. fumigatus - thermotolerant species able to grow from 12°to 57°C.
It's cosmopolitan specie common in house dust in the air of the interior, in different
types of soils on decaying plant material. It also degrades PVC materials. Aspergillus
produces various organic acids and enzymes, including proteases. It produces secondary
metabolites like gliotoxin, kojic acid and fumigacin. Inside the human body it causes
fungal infections, especially in immune compromised patients and HIV positive
patients, it induces type I allergies and respiratory system aspergillosis [9].

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Aspergillosis are diseases caused by fungi of the genus Aspergillus (A. Fumigatus, most
often). The transmission occurs via inhalation, therefore it affect breath system,
typically. Also aspergilloma and allergic disabilities - asthma, EAA (u nonatopic) and
allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (individuals with atopy), immunosuppression
may increase its invasiveness (invasive aspergillosis). It may also affect pleura, the area
of the upper respiratory tract, especially the paranasal sinuses, in severe cases,
intracranial space, urinary tract, etc. The disease occurs mainly in debilitated
individuals. By its invasive forms it may result in the penetration of vascular thrombosis
and necrosis. The number and severity of the disease is increasing recently in
connection with the number of immunocompromised patients, it is also a serious
nosocomial infection. In addition to the direct invassion of the important action of
toxins produced by some Aspergillus [10].
Very high fatality rate was reported by Swu et al. in UK. Especially, young patients
under 20 who had 68.2% fatality. The rest of age groups also 52.6% (aged 41-50)
fatality rate to 59% (aged 21-30). According official European statistics there is 33% of
European population in risk of Severe Asthma with fungal sensitisation caused by
Aspergilla and 17.5% of population at risk of Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.
The Statistics include entire Europe incl. Russian federation [11].
Ophanet, a consortium of European medical companies currently defines a condition
rare when it affects 1 person per 2,000. Statistics in USA present Aspergillosis
probability to: 2,720 per 100 000 inhabitants per year [12]. Based on this we can state
the aspergillosis is a rare illness worldwide.
CARBON OXIDE
Carbon oxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are gases with fatal effects due to their
natural tendency to bond the blood oxygen what causes the oxygen shortage and the
body without oxygen is intoxicated with fatal consequences very often. Both CO and
CO2 and also methan (CH4) are off-gassing from biomass. Therefore air circulation must
be secured everywhere the biomass is stored. More than 10 fatal incidents were
reported within 10 years in connection to pellet shipping from Canada to Europe. 8
fatalities were caused by CO since 2002 till 2011. Typically, the victim entered the
storage room after several days of no air circulation inside. One person entered a pellet
storage with 10 t in Vasa, Finland, 2008 – typical report of fatal incident. Usually sailors
are the main victim group. Later, the experimental measurements of gas concentrations
in Canadian Labs were made. Pellet of 6 to 6.2 mm diameter, moisture content 2.8 to
8.1%, bulk density of 704 to 739 kg/m3 and particle density of 1.08 to 1.32 g/m3 were
physical properties of white pellets used in experiment [13].
The values for CO and CO2 raised up to several thousand ppm. CO2 concentration was
from 2,000 ppm (room temp.) to 60,000 ppm (55°C) after 2-3 days without fresh air.
Similary, CO concentration reached very quickly 1,000 ppm (room temperature) and
over 12,500 ppm (55°C). Even short contact – one breath with these concentrations
might be fatal for the accidentally entering person [13]. Maximum acceptable hygiene
level is 25 ppm for CO in workplace and 9ppm in residential area. Considering the
shipment duration from Canada to Europe (4 - 6 weeks), no wonder extreme values off-
gassing released carbon gases occur in ship basements after so long time in case of no
ventilation.

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BIOMASS STORAGE
According the Regulation of 258/2007 of Ministry of Interior [14], the technical and
fire-safety requirements of wood chip storage are following: Wood chips and sawdust
can be stored max. 60 days outdoors without re-stocking. Max. height of the pile is
30m, max. basement diameter is 150m. The temperature need to be measured on daily
basis, in depth of 1.5 m in 10m horizontal distances. When during the first week of
storage the temperatures do not exceed 35°C, the interval of measurement can be
prolonged to three days. When 50°C is reached or the absolute increase of 3°C is
reached within 24hrs, the pile has to be disarranged.
Pellets should be stocked in a long shelf near the boiler either in the basement or
underground where from they are automatically delivered as needed to conveyor. Silo
or warehouse, they can be transported directly from blowing tanks. Preferably, the
pellets are smaller size requirements for storage space. Another way to ensure the
supply of fuel to the boiler pellet hopper is fuel tank connected directly to the boiler.
Fuel is necessary to keep the record of the bags. Pellet consumption for the heating
season for a typical house is about 7-8 m3.

CONCLUSION
Biomass especially wood pellets had become very popular fuel thanks to its low price
and relatively high user comfort. When stocked certain legislative standard criteria have
to be met to avoid fatal injuries. There are three main risks connected to storage of
wood pellets or biomass generally. Risk of auto-ignition and self-explosion is high
when fire-triangle or explosion pentagon elementary conditions are present (Fig.1). One
of the basic biomass properties is self-heating what can lead to gradual self ignition.
Second main risk is related to biomass biological activity. Bacteria and typically
Aspergillus Fumigatus - fungi are present whenever 20% moisture and at least 3°C are
reached. Aspergillus causes rare lung and respiratory diseases and asthmatic reactions as
well as lung and hearth infection. Another risk in closed spaces is due to CO and CO 2
released during the transport in closed storage rooms without air ventilation. There were
several victims entering spaces with poison gasses. This kind of risk applies also to
pellet storage in dwellings.
Official storage regulations and standards must be met in order to avoid risk situations
with fatal consequences. All the three risk types above had caused fatal injuries in past.
Another measurements should be made with new kind of biomass with different
moisture and self-heating potential. Most likely certain relation among moisture,
density, bioactivity and self-heating will be proofed with certain coefficients for
biomass species.

REFERENCES
[1] Biomass Energy Center. Biomassenergycentre.org.uk
[2] Müllerová J. & Mikulík M. Technology and safety of biomass combustion. LAP
Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany2012.

[3] Müllerová J., Fire Safety Properties of Heat Treated Wood. Research Journal of
Recent Sciences, India, vol. 2/issue12), pp 80-82, 2013.

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[4] Balog K. Samovznietenie: Samozahrievanie. Vznietenie. Vzplanutie/ Auto-ignition:

self heating. Ignition. Conflagration, Czech rep. 1999.

[5] Goglia V., Suchomel J., Žgela J., & Đukić I.The effectiveness of forest pre-
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Fuel Institute, USA 2010.

[7] Earth Care Products, Dust Explosions and Fire, Torrefied vs. Non-Torrefied
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[8] Suchomel J. & Belanová K. Influence of selected meteorological phenomena on
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[9] Murray P.R., Patrick R., Rosenthal K.R & Pfaller M.A, Medical Microbiology.
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[10] Swu-Jane L., Schranz J. & Teutsch S.T. Aspergillosis Case-Fatality Rate:
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[11] European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Risk assessment on the
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to medical triazoles in Aspergillus species, Sweden 2013.

[12] Right diagnosis for Health care. Statistics about Aspergillosis, USA 2014.

[13] Schüßler I., Blomqvist P., Persson H. & Holmgren M.A., Safety aspects in small
scale biomass combustion.
[14] Regulation of 258/2007 of Ministry of Interior of Slovak Republic

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