nir-vana innovation network

The Finnish company has developed a fully automated solution, which renews raw material quality management at biomass power plants, pulp mills and bio refineries and also at many other industries where annually hundreds of thousands of tons of solid material is handled. The sampler is a unique solution (EPO patent) that takes quality management of solid materials to the next level. The sampler enables fast and reliable sampling directly from each arriving truck load or train wagon before unloading and it works for all crushed materials.

The biggest bottleneck in biomass quality management has been sampling. According to many studies, 80% of all falsity is an outcome of an incorrect sampling method and the remaining 20% of falsity is a result of handling samples and measuring them in the wrong way. Within biomass industry falsity in quality controlling is causing errors of approximately 2% in the moisture result, which causes errors of approximately 5% in the biofuel energy content calculation. Also, in many other industries sampling causes problems.

The new sampler developed by the company eliminates errors caused by conventional sampling procedures. Also, sampling system provides real-time moisture information of each biomass delivery bringing considerable advantages to the industry.

As company’s background is in the biomass industry, the sampling procedure follows closely sampling and solid biofuel sample handling standards EN ISO 18135 and EN ISO 14780 and has proven to be considerably more accurate than the manual sampling practices.

The company is already on the national and international markets. The company is aiming to grow with the help of distributors, agents, EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractors or owner’s engineer companies (representative of the commissioning company undertaken to protect the owner’s interest in a construction or engineering project) operating in the biomass, pulp, bio-refinery, mining and agrofood sectors within and outside of Europe. Ideally, the partner is involved in power plant design or in renewing fuel handling systems and is also able to provide maintenance and service work.

Based on first-hand experience in working with different energy companies in biomass sampling in Finland as well as on international studies, the company identified a global challenge in the sector and developed an automated solution to improve the procedures for quality control. So far the company has contacted directly potential clients such as power plants and engineering companies, but they are looking for partners for international growth from other industries as well.

Advantages & innovations

This automation technology solves a global challenge of sampling material directly from the truck/train. The sampler collects samples automatically and rapidly straight from the load before unloading. The sampler is an out-of-the box solution combining proven technical solutions, latest technology, automation and industrial internet in a way that has never been seen before in biomass industry. The most important advantage is to get representative samples from the material which has been impossible so far with manual sampling. Customers will get more precise information per each load about the feedstock material. Company can also produce computational moisture information per each load for biomass. It is accurate enough for the logistical purposes. The company’s solution presents a new way of operating that benefits the end user, feedstock supplier as well as consumers and the society at large by improving resource and cost efficiency (and therefore also sustainability) of feedstock supply and use. Within biomass industry the system has proven to bring remarkable cost saving. Among other benefits the solution is estimated to create a hundreds of thousands of annual savings (€) at an over 500 GWh (fuel usage/a) power plant. The solution helps reduce CO2 emissions not only in the supply chain and at the plant but also by making biomass more competitive and therefore a more favourable fuel feedstock compared to coal. Automated sampling also improves work safety remarkably, as employees do not need to take samples manually, therefore decreasing the risk for physical injuries and being exposed to harmful substances such as dust and microbes.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

Commercial agent, distributor, EPC contractor or owner’s engineer company involved in energy sector. Ideally the partner is involved in power plant design or in renewing fuel handling systems and is also able to provide maintenance and service work.