Sustainability on industrial estate

Joinery implements biomass heating and rain water storage for business units

Our company was tasked with the overall planning of the new premises for this industrial joinery, a project of $ 1.5 million. The owner was determined to reduce the environmental impact of the new factory. As a result, a biomass boiler was installed. The joinery owner founded an Energy Services Company (ESCo) which sells heat to the joinery itself and to four neighbouring factories as well as one domestic building. Wood shavings from the joinery are stored in two silos for use as fuel. For security, a backup oil boiler is connected into the heating system.

The entire system, including heat distribution and fuel storage and transport, were planned by our German office. In addition, we assisted in obtaining government grant funding for the system.

The maintenance costs for the entire biomass district heating system came to $1600 for the first 10 years of operation, a meagre $160 per year.

A further measure was the storage and use of rain water. A cistern of 10,000 litres capacity was installed. This supplies water to toilets for a workforce of 20. It also feeds the irrigation system for the facade planting.

The owner estimates that the storage and use of rainwater is saving him $ 1500 annually, at a capital outlay of $ 6000.

Client's comments: "The system runs very well - we have no problems. We only clean the boiler 2 times per month - in winter 4 times... that's all!!! Before we had another system (planned by a different company!) with many failures every week . We would use Vollmer again and I can recommend Vollmer Engineering very very highly."

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