avp 0528Wood cogeneration plants run in carpentry around the clock

At the foot of the Peitlerkofel - one of the most important summits of the Dolomites - lies the unspoiled mountain village of Campill. On the one side of the small village is Roland Dapoz's home, on the other side are his company's premises. Since December 2013, Roland Dapoz has been operating two 45 kWel Spanner Re² wood cogeneration plants. The two wood gasifiers with one CHP each supply energy to the carpentry business, a large double bin dryer, a container drying system as well as an ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) plant.

There is also an accessible drying floor available for drying wood chips, animal feed or hay. Until October 2016, the plants achieved about 24,200 operating hours. In 2015, the plants achieved an annual utilisation of almost 98% with 8,560 hours. His own briquette press processes fines.

2017 energy system is extended by HKA 10

In addition to the two existing Biomass CHP plants, Dapoz expanded its energy system in 2017 to include the compact HKA 10 cogeneration plant. In comparison to the larger wood gasifiers, the HKA 10 wood gasifier unit and the CHP unit as well as the control unit are housed in one housing.

Wood chip management at woodworking business:

Roland Dapoz has 15 hectares of forest available, which can be farmed in part only via cable car. His own input of wood is about 10 % of the fuel required for the two HKA 45 plants. In addition to his own wood, logs are purchased externally for the production of wood chips. If the storage area is filled, an external shredder will process the wood to about 600 m³ of wood chips in approx. 5 hours.

The briquetted fines are used for the wood chip heating system of the private home with agricultural building as well as for the brother's wood chip heating system.

Plant schematic:

plant schematic dapoz

Storage depot for storing logs and buffering larger amounts of wet wood chips: unlimited
Drying via accessible drying floor: 80 m³
Double bin dryer: 2 times 130 m³
Container drying: 25 m³
The wood gasifier is directly supplied with wood chips from the double bin dryer via a heavy-duty cone discharge. 

Conversation with Roland Dapoz about the CHP plant data:

Hello Roland, your company building is quite large, what kind of business do you operate?

By using the heat of the wood cogeneration plants I dry wood chips and also animal feed and hay, if needed.

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I need the carpentry business for my work with wood. I have specialised in the construction of log homes made of solid logs.

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Comment: Roland Dapoz builds beautiful, robust and natural log homes and also offers the interior made of solid wood in a noble design. The word veneer is certainly not part of Roland Dapoz's vocabulary.

What do you do with more than 200 kW heat that the two HKA 45 plants produce?

I require the heat to largely for my drying systems, for wood chips, animal feed or hay drying. I also sell dried material. In addition, I supply my entire business including carpentry, workshop, office and warehouse with heat. A ORC plant supplies about 13.5 kW of electricity into the public electricity grid and the wood cogeneration plant supplies it with heat energy.

How much time do you need to budget for the operation of the wood cogeneration plants?

The two plants require a maximum of 12 hours of work per week. Then there is also the work with the drying systems.

On our own account:

At the end I complimented Roland Dapoz that he had the best maintained plant in my view. Roland showed me the contaminations which he takes out of the sieved fines. The amount was rather small. Many other plant operators unfortunately care less about even much more contaminations.

The proper operation of a Spanner Re² wood cogeneration plants requires, of course, a certain amount of maintenance work; in case of a double plant, the energy supply generated by the raw material wood is secured with approximately 100 %.

Photos of the plant: (Click on them to magnify)