Case study: installation of a Biocont Export with pellet silo

This case study follows step-by-step the installation of a Boilercont Export containerised biomass heating plant with a pellet silo.

Location: parking of the L’Oréal warehouse in Mitry-Mory, France.
Use of the boiler plant: warehouse heating.
Boiler mounted inside the containerised plant: Säätötuli 500kW (1,706,000 BTU/hr) hot water boiler.
Type of silo: pellet silo.

Empty installation site

Installation starts on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011.

Prior to the installation, the customer has made a concrete pad to accommodate the containerised biomass plant. Insulated heating tubes have been installed between the warehouse that will be heated and the concrete pad. Location of the heating tubes was discussed between the customer and Säätötuli before the manufacturing of the bioheat container. A mobile crane has been rented for the installation.

Arrival of the equipment on installation site
The boiler-room container is lifted to be installed

The containerised biomass heating plant arrived on two trucks: a flatbed with the boiler-room container and its roof, and a standard truck for the pellet silo that arrived in parts to be assembled on site. The roof of the boiler-room container was unmounted for transport because of height restrictions on the roads between the factory and the customer.

Boiler-room container is placed so that the heating network tubes arrive inside

At first the boiler-room container is lifted and placed on the concrete pad. The container is placed in order to enter the insulated heating tubes by the hatch that was designed for them under the container.

Installing the roof of the boiler room container
Placing the base of the pellet silo

Erection of the pellet silo

Once the boiler-room is at its final location, the roof is lifted and placed on top of the boiler room. It is then time to erect the pellet silo. After the pellet silo is assembled, all the final accessories are mounted, like the chimney, the auger between the silo and the boiler-room and the ash removal augers that automatically remove ashes from the boiler to an outside container.

The ash removal auger removes the ashes from the firebox into a container outside the boiler room
For this particular case, the pellet silo received an extra sheet-metal cladding

The Boilercont Export is ready to start

All mechanical installation was done by Thursday, December 8th, 2011. Electrical connection to the main electrical box of the boiler-room was made on December 7th, plumbing works to connect the boiler plant to the heat network was done on December 8th.

The containerised boiler plant was ready to start on Friday, December 9th, 2011, four days after its arrival on site. This installation was a little bit longer than standard containerised biomass boiler plant installations because the pellet silo had to be assembled and it had an extra sheet-metal cladding to have the same color as the boiler plant container. The boiler was filled with water on the same day and training of the local staff started.

Filling up the pellet silo

Monday, December 12th, 2011

After the silo was filled with pellets, the boiler was started for the first time. After a 24 hour pre-heating mode at 50% of the maximum output, the biomass boiler was fully operational. Since the installation, this containerised biomass boiler plant has been running all winters without trouble, with only the scheduled maintenance every summer.