News article - Toronto Star
No
clinkers in this clean-burning heating system
Biomass pellets make a difference
Quebecers have patented
system
STEVE MAXWELL
When Mark Drisdelle and
Claude Lapointe consider the Kyoto Protocol and the immense challenges of curbing
greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, they don't get discouraged, they get busy.
The starting point for these Quebec entrepreneurs is simple: Any sustainable
energy strategy needs to operate with a bare minimum of fossil fuels.
Sound naive? Perhaps, but Drisdelle and Lapointe have the hardware and the experience
to propose this approach for our country, and they can do it with a good deal
of authority. That's why their story is so compelling
When it comes to energy systems, both believe in biomass. They make a strong,
scientific case for the value of burning pelletized wood waste, bark and farm-raised
energy grasses as the foundation for a vibrant and environmentally sustainable
economy in Canada.
And they've proven their claims with products they manufacture right here at
home.
This is really all about moving towards a low-carbon economy, and it's what
we have to do if we're to live up to our responsibility for reducing greenhouse
gas emissions.
Every time you fire up a car or a furnace or an electrical generating station
that runs on oil or natural gas you're adding loads of new carbon dioxide to
the atmosphere. And this gas is a potent contributor to the greenhouse warming
of our planet.
The fact is, we've all got to go on a low-carb diet of a new and different sort.
The technical solution offered by Drisdelle and Lapointe revolves around a patented
and international award-winning burner system that supports some of the cleanest
and most efficient biomass combustion in the world. This claim may seem tall,
but it's been verified by independent testing here in Canada, in Sweden and
in the U.S. But to understand what this advance is all about, you need to know
something about the significance of a peculiar combustion quirk that kicks in
at about the 650C level.
This is the critical temperature at which the minerals in burning biomass fuels
begin to get troublesome. As combustion gets hotter than 650C, it causes minerals
within the biomass to stick together, bonding the ash into semi-solid clumps
called "clinkers." This fact has always been a stumbling block for
researchers trying to get the most out of various biomass combustion devices.
Not any more.
Drisdelle and Lapointe have developed a two-step biomass combustion process
that eliminates clinker formation, enabling pellet stoves and industrial biomass
boilers to operate with extraordinary efficiency and cleanliness, while burning
inexpensive, high-ash fuels.
And their breakthrough involves the renewed application of an old technology
called "gasification."
During World War II, fuel-starved farmers in Europe developed systems to capture
the gases given off by smouldering wood fires for use as an energy source to
power tractors, trucks and cars. This is gasification in its most basic form,
and it's the first part of the process that happens inside the biomass burners
that Drisdelle and Lapointe have developed under their Dell-Point corporate
name (http://www.pelletstove.com).
Biomass pellets within the Dell-Point system burn with insufficient oxygen at
a relatively low initial temperature; well below that critical 650C clinker
threshold. This low-temperature phase converts biomass energy into volatile
"gasified" components that are then allowed to burn with ample oxygen
as they move farther through the burner assembly. This hot, high temperature
second-phase combustion happens away from the ash, eliminating the clinker problem
completely, resulting in extremely high rates of combustion efficiency as verified
by third party audits. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has certified the unique Dell-Point technology as having one of the lowest emissions
for any solid fuel combustion device ever tested in the history of the organization.
The One-Tonne Challenge is our federal government's way of encouraging Canadians
to reduce per capita output of greenhouse gases from an average of five tonnes
per person per year to four. Switching from fossil fuel to biomass pellets for
space heating in Canada is like picking low-hanging fruit when it comes to greenhouse
gas gains. Converting the average heating system for a 2,000-square-foot home
from fossil fuels to biomass eliminates five to nine tonnes of greenhouse gas
emissions per year. Do that one step, and the Challenge is more than met.
When 34 leaders from the G8 nations met for an energy summit in London on March
15, they were presented with a photo of Mt. Kilimanjaro as it hasn't been seen
for 11,000 years. This famous, snow-capped African peak is now nearly bare because
of increasing ambient air temperatures. And this sobering prospect has occurred
15 years sooner than scientists initially predicted.
Global warming is for real. But we have the tools to stop its advance.
Heating your home with efficiently burned biomass pellets costs 25 to 50 per
cent less than oil or natural gas, and these financial gains could ripple throughout
the Canadian economy if more people understood the advantages. After all, how
often do you get to save money and the planet at the same time?
Dell-Point
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