Glossary

This collection of terms is for people who deal with the topic biomass for the first time.

It is not intended as a scientific glossary.

Biomass Biomass is defined as everything that grows in woods and fields and is not intended as a food. For us any kind of wood is relevant: logs, wood chips, pellets, sawdust, barks, etc.

The oldest form of energy generation of mankind is the combustion of pieces of wood or logs.

This energy is based on the ability of plants to convert absorbed solar energy from the sun into biochemical energy. The result is a indirect use of solar energy.
Cogeneration unit A cogeneration unit is a plant for the generation of heat and electricity.
Contracting This term is understood as a service to make a building more economical efficient by outsourcing the energy business to a specialized company.
Contractor A contractor is an external company that pre-finances, builds and operates strategic measures for energy supply. Funding comes from energy revenues and the saving in energy costs.
CO2-Input The input of CO2 into the atmosphere is a result of the combustion of fossil fuels.
CO2-Cycle A tree with one bulk cubic meter saved 200 kg of carbon while growing. Therefore it absorbed 750 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

At the end of the tree’s lifecycle it is returning this CO2 into the atmosphere.

The only difference is in the speed of the emission (the wood rots in the forest versus combustion of the wood), the amount remains the same.
CO2 -Neutral During the combustion of wood only the combined carbon is returned. The share of CO2 in the atmosphere remains unchanged. Because of that it is referred to as “CO2-Neutral”
Emissions Different types of Emissions are solid, liquid and gaseous pollutants coming from plants, buildings, factories or means of transport as well as the output of heat, radiation or noise.

The impact of emissions is called immission.
Emission limits Limits for the permissible emission of pollutants
Energy Energy is understood as the ability of a system to perform work.

Energy is measured in units of Joules (J) and is the product of time and power.

One Joule corresponds to one watt-second (Ws).

In practise, it is measured in kilowatt-hours.

1 watt-second x 1000 = 1 kilowatt-second
Energy wood Wood utilized as an energy resource and often planted for that purpose.
Energy crops Energy crops are planted for energy production. As an energy resource whole plants, plant parts and plant waste can be used.
Energy buffer Related to buffers are different descriptions, products, understandings and physical circumstances:

Heating water Water flowing through the radiator, underfloor heating, wall heating, heater battery within the boiler or convector heater.
Industrial water Fresh water, cold or hot
Buffer Content: heating water
Aim: Balancing supply and need of heating energy in the heating system.
Load balancing buffer = Buffer store
Buffer = Buffer store
Combined tank Combined buffer and hot water tank
Water heater Content: Industrial water

Aim: heating water. There are types without storage function (build-in heater and instantaneous water heater).
Renewable energy Natural processes on earth transforming energy used by humans for their activities: solar energy, biomass, wind energy and hydropower
Bulk cubic meter A bulk cubic meter is a standard unit in forestry for the round logs.
Fossil fuels Fossil fuels and energy sources are solid, liquid or gaseous fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. By burning fossil fuels big amounts of CO2 are taken from the earth’s crust and released into the atmosphere.
Wood chips See wood chips
Boiler In the boiler the water is heated by fire. For that, oil, natural gas, coil, wood or similar material is burned.
Wood chips Wood chips are produced by mechanical crushing and are 3 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) big.
Chamber See combustion chamber
Pellets Pellets are cylindrical tabs with 6 mm diameter out of wood shavings and sawdust.
Ster/Cubic meter A ster is a cubic meter (m³) of layered logs of wood including the air space in between.
Bulk cubic meter (BCM) A bulk cubic meter (BCM) refers to a cubic meter (m³) of dumped pieces of wood like wood chips, sawdust, logs of wood.
Heat meter A water meter calculating the energy consumption with two temperature sensors measuring the amount of water flowing through and in addition the temperature differences.

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