Webinar No 5: Producing quality wood fuels for the Irish market

Wood and biomass used for heating have the lowest emissions of carbon of all dispatchable renewable heating systems, reducing emissions by as much as 94% from that of using heating oil. Wood fuel quality is an essential component of ensuring the maximum efficiency, minimising harmful emissions, and ensuring that heating appliances are maintained. In this webinar IrBEA will hear from two WFQA certified suppliers of wood fuels. They will discuss the aspects of producing consistent quality fuels, the benefits for consumers and how this has positively assisted their businesses to confidently supply the market, and to grow their own market share. The future for wood fuels is directly linked to the need to decarbonise our economies. Wood fuels predominantly come from forest and sawmill residues, ensuring that forest management can utilise all the woody material in the forest, with little waste and maximize utilisation of our resources.

View the live Webinar here and the presentation slides here

Speakers

John Sherlock – Sherlogs

Ken McCauley – McCauley Wood Fuels

Noel Gavigan – IrBEA Technical Director (Chair)

PRESS RELEASE: Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) welcomes new Project Officer

The Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) is delighted to announce that Stephen McCormack has been appointed as a Project Officer for the Association.

Seán Finan IrBEA CEO said “On behalf of IrBEA, I’m delighted to welcome Stephen McCormack to the Association. I wish him the best of luck and every success in his new role. Stephen brings with him a wealth of experience to the organisation and we look forward to working with him at this pivotal juncture as Ireland transitions to renewables away from fossil fuels”

Stephen McCormack holds a Bachelor Degree in Energy, Sustainability and the Environment from IT Sligo. He also holds a postgraduate in Environmental Management. He brings a broad range of experience and knowledge to IrBEA and will join the IrBEA team at an exciting time for the Renewable Energy sector. Stephen will focus on delivery of the recently commenced Interreg NW Europe Three C Project. This project will focus on the circular carbon economy through the development of value-added carbon products and services based on biochar and carbon feedstocks. Stephen will also be involved in other projects and work programmes within the organisation.

Prior to joining IrBEA, he worked for a number of years with the Regional Development team at the Western Development Commission. During that time Stephen worked on the RE-DIRECT project and the Blue Circular Economy project, two ERDF funded projects looking at the area of the circular economy.

Stephen McCormack said “I am delighted to be able to join the team here at IrBEA. I think the work done by the association is invaluable and I am looking forward to working with the team, the members and wider stakeholders to help further the development of the sector in any way I can. I see great potential in the role bioenergy will play in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and I am particularly interested in the possible intersection of bioenergy and environmental improvements that the Three C project will explore.”

About the Three C Project:

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The Three C project is a transnational Interreg North West Europe project consisting of project partners from 6 different countries. It is the follow on project to the RE-DIRECT project and is aimed at promoting the development of high quality products and value chains based on charcoal feedstocks. It will do this through the creation of regional Circular Carbon Hubs( CC-Hubs) where products can be developed and marketed, a number of Circular Carbon Labs (CC- Labs) where products and feedstocks can be quality tested, and, through the development of a network( CC- Net) that will provide business supports, training and advice for SMEs looking to get involved in the sector.