HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARDS OF BIOMASS STORAGE

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-15-5 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 4, Vol. 1, 261-266 pp

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 selfexplosion 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.