11.08.2015   ENERGY SERVICES IN THE HINDU KUSH HIMALAYAN REGION

BUILDING A SOLID BIOFUEL STANDARDIZATION PRACTICE IN EUROPE

The benefits of developing European standards as a means to stimulate solid biofuel utilization and trade has gradually become more apparent to many players in the bioenergy market. As a result, the European Committee for Standardisation, CEN, was given the mandate to initiate the development of European standards for solid biofuels. A work program for a CEN Technical Committee for solid biofuels was drafted and approved within a FAIR/THERMIE1 consortia sponsored by the EC Directorate General for Research and Energy. The program was based on standardization reports in all EU countries. Finally, a Technical Committee for Solid Biofuels was established at the end of May 2000 to undertake the work.

The Technical Committee should propose standards applicable to solid biofuels that originate from the following sources (CEN TC 335, 2001):

• Products from agriculture and forestry;

• Vegetable waste from agriculture and forestry; [13]

Table 11.3. Working groups of CEN TC 335 solid biofuels

No.

Working group

Convenor of working group

I

Terminology, definitions and description

Deutsches Institu fur Normung e. V. (DIN), Berlin, Germany

II

Classification and quality assurance

Suomen Standardisoimisliitto r. y. (SFS), Helsinki, Finland

III

Sampling and sample reduction

British Standards Institution (BSI), London, United Kingdom

IV

Physical mechanical testing

Standardiseringen і Sverige (SIS), Stockholm, Sweden

V

Chemical testing

Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut (NEN), Delft, The Netherlands

DIN: German Institute for Standardization. SFS: Finnish Standards Association.

SIS: Swedish Standards Institute.

NEN: Netherlands Standardization Institute.

• Vegetable waste from food-processing industry;

• Wood waste, with the exception of wood waste which may contain halogen — ated organic compounds or heavy metals as a result of treatment with wood preservatives or coating (includes particularly wood waste originated from building and demolition waste);

• Cork waste.

The activities of CEN TC 335 Solid Biofuels are accompanied by the so-called Mirror Committees within the CEN member states (i. e. Germany, Austria, Sweden). Through these committees, all the concerned national key actors (i. e. manufacturers of equipment, traders, consumers, scientists) get the possibility to join the stan­dardization process and add their experiences to the work. This is very important since the European standards, when they come into force, will overrule the existing national standards.

Five working groups were established to develop more than 20 European standards (see Table 11.3). The working groups are formed by different European experts and started their work in late 2000. The first draft standards were forwarded to the Mirror Committees by the end of 2002 for voting. The first implementa­tion phase at the European level was expected during 2004. Table 11.3 shows the role of the working groups and who is leading each task. The tasks are further explained here.