Biogas / Biomass / Biofuels

With increases in energy costs and increasing environmental concerns there has been an increased interest in Bio-Energy using Biofuels. Biofuels are derived from biomass. Unprocessed biomass can be used to generate electricity or heat by directly combusting the raw material, or they can be converted to bioethanol, biodiesel, or biogas that can be used in boilers or in engines to generate electricity. Biofuels include:

• Biogas from the anaerobic digestion of waste such as waste from food or drink manufacture, or municipal waste,
• Biomass from sawdust, wood pellets, green woodchip, bagasse, draff,
• Biofuels such as bio ethanol or biodiesel.

Associated with these can be processes such as gas storage, gas compression, gas engines, boilers, gas scrubbing, solids and dust handling, flammable liquid and vapour handling.

All of these processes involve flammables or combustible material requiring specialist risk assessment and hazardous area classification.

HSD can help to ensure safety and legal compliance for these processes by providing:

• Explosion risk assessment
• Hazardous Area Classification
• Fire Risk Assessment
• DSEAR / ATEX assessment
• COMAH studies / audits
• HAZOP studies
• Toxic Gas dispersion modelling