Market impacts of emission and 

efficiency standards – the Austrian 

experience
The situation in Austria in the 1980s 

Significant amount of traditional use of wood for heating 

Testing of wood boilers in a national laboratory is

established – competition on quality established

Early 1990s: first province introduces stringent regulation

for wood boilers and obligation for type approval of new

models

1991: public competition for biomass boilers leads to key

innovations

1995: national regulation introduced
The Austrian wood emission learning curve

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

year

CO [mg/Nm3]

Phase of competition

based learning

First provincial emission regulation

Competition for advanced automatic boilers

National emission regulation
0"

50.000"

100.000"

150.000"

200.000"

250.000"

kW"

Annually"Installed"Capacity"of""

Small"Scale"Biomass"Furnaces"in"Austria"

Wood"Chips"

Pellets"

Logwood"

Regulatory action
First Conclusions

Long term market trend was not adversely impacted by

emission regulations

Regulations pushed poor performers towards compliance

Pellets as new fuel created a strong kick for market

development

Long term learning curve led to international technology

and market leadership for Austrian boiler manufacturers
Note: all improvements in emissions were due to primary

measures – improvement of the combustion process ! 

Downward draft and staged combustion (logwood) 

Properly designed combustion chamber: temperature, 

residence time and turbulence

Electronic control of combustion air

Stable bed of embers, proper dimensioning of grate 

Engineering services for constructing state of art wood

combustion systems are available on the market: e.g. 

www.bioenergy2020.eu 
What is the impact of stringent emission regulations 

on costs? 

Development costs for a pellet furnace model

complying with current emission standards: 1,3-1,9 

Mio $ (approx. 1/3 for outsourced technical design) 

Development costs for logwood gasification

furnace: 700.000 - 900.000$ 

Impact on production costs: logwood gasification

furnace will cost twice as much as conventional

natural draft model
automatic

AT 1995 AT 2012 EU 2017

CO 1,10 0,55 0,55

CxHy 0,09 0,04 (0,07) 0,02

Dust 0,13 0,04 (0,07) 0,04

(Values in bracket for wood chips boiler)

manually stoked

AT 1995 AT 2012 EU 2017

CO 2,43 1,10 0,77

CxHy 0,18 0,07 0,03

Dust 0,13 0,07 0,07

EU 2017: Expected Ecodesign measures 4-6 years after adoption of LOT 15

The development of emission limits in Austria and 

expected EU regulations (values in lb/ MMBtu)
One thing that should definitely NOT be introduced

Requirement for secondary cleaning devices (precipitator, 

catalyst) 

Primary measures can lead to extremely low levels of

emissions and improve efficiency at the same time 

Secondary cleaning devices add very significant

investment and operation costs

Excessive requirements for new equipment can

significantly slow down replacement of highly polluting old

devices – significant net disadvantage! 
Why should we use wood fuels at all? 

> 90% GHG savings compared to fuel oil

Significantly lower environmental hazards in fuel

procurement

Contribution to rural economies and national economy

Security of energy supply – it is much more efficient to

reduce oil dependence with solid biomass than with liquid 

biofuels

Significant savings for consumers
0 

2 

4 

6 

8 

10 

12 

2003 

2004 

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 

Cent/kWh 

Sources: e-control, IWO, Pellets proPellets Austria; September 2012 

Average annual prices for heating fuels in Austria 

Heating 

oil 

Natural 

Gas 

Pellets 
Policy suggestions

Explicitly positive approach towards wood fuel use with

state of the art equipment

Emission requirements in line with European regulations

Requirement for type approval based on measurements in 

an accredited laboratory

Publication of the measurement results

In Minesota recently a lab was established to test biomass

furnaces: IRETI, University of Mankato
Conclusions

Emission and efficiency standards did not have a negative 

impact on long term market development in Austria 

They need to be reasonable however and set

requirements, that can be met by primary measures

(enhanced combustion) 

Harmonisation of requirements with EU regulations would

benefit technology transfer and speed up improvements of

air quality in the US 
Thank you for your attention!