Sustainable Welbeck - The Biomass Project
Sustainability underpins all our decision-making here on the Welbeck estate to ensure we address issues related to climate change, natural resource scarcity and enhanced threats to our natural environment.
Welbeck has over 5000 acres of woodland, many of which are areas of ancient woodland sites. A wealth of wildlife makes our forests their home, so our woodland operations work sensitively within the constraints of protecting and enhancing the landscape for biodiversity value.
Under the Welbeck Woodland Management Plan, our highly skilled foresters regularly conduct necessary woodland thinning to help improve timber stocks and ensure wildlife strives within our landscape. A selection of felled timber from across the estate is then used to produce renewable heat for Welbeck Abbey, multiple commercial office spaces, two of our holiday lets, and twenty-four residential properties.
The first biomass plant was installed in 2010, and since then, four additional biomass boilers have been introduced to the estate. The Welbeck Woodland Management Plan strategically uses various softwood and hardwood trees for biomass production. The softwood trees will be approximately forty years old, and the hardwoods will be 100 years old. Trees selected for use within biomass production are those that don't meet the quality standard for saw logs destined for construction timber.
Head Forester Duncan Scroggs has provided a detailed insight into the working procedures of biomass production on the Welbeck estate:
"Once the selected timber has been harvested, it is stacked within the Forestry Department, where the felled timber is left to begin seasoning and drying out.
Hardwood takes longer to dry, so it is split by machine to speed up the drying process. The target moisture content for the timber is 30%. The boilers use a mix of 70% softwood and 30% hardwood. It takes a minimum of 12 months for the softwood to dry and up to 3 years for the hardwood.
Once the timber is nearing its correct moisture content, it is hauled from the woods by timber lorry and stacked next to the Chip Store, where it completes the drying process. Every three months, the team chips approx. 300m3 of softwood and 100m3 of hardwood to create 400m3 of G50 size woodchip, which is suitable for all five of the Welbeck Biomass Boilers. When the Chip reaches the boilers, it is at around 25% moisture content.
More recently, Welbeck has started using coppiced Sweet Chestnut for its biomass production, enabling us to have a very sustainable hardwood chip, which will reduce the need to fell large mature trees."
Interesting facts about biomass boilers
- Biomass boilers are eco-friendly devices that use organic materials like wood. They work by burning the biomass fuel in a chamber and transferring the hot gases to a heat exchanger that heats the water.
- Biomass boilers can use different types of fuel, such as wood pellets, chips, logs, or even waste from crops or animals.
- Biomass boilers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money on energy bills as they use renewable and low-cost sources of fuel.