1APrototypePrototypefor the Westfor the WestASolutionSolutionthatmakes$enseWildfires in the year 2000came close to a home inPinesdale, the area fromwhere much of the woodchip fuel for Darby is now coming from.Darby School Complexin Darby, Montanais home to a new form ofheat that will serveas a prototype for others to follow.Presentation by: Becki Linderman, Bitterroot RC&DRick Scheele, Darby Maintenance Supervisor2Left—Tom Coston, withthe Bitterroot Resource, Conservation & DevelopmentArea, Inc., makes a presentation to theDarby School Board about the concept ofFuels for Schools andthe potential thatthis idea would have for Darby Schools.Right—Early in 2002 the Darby SchoolBoard listened attentively to the idea ofFuels for Schools and took special interestin the savings that could eventually begained in heating costs converting from anoil based (non-renewable) system to awood burning (renewable) system. Theboard voted unanimouslyto adopt the project and move forward with plans.3A community groundbreaking ceremony followed the presentation ofgrant money to the DarbySchool District fromUSFS Region 1/Region4-State and Private Forestry Division. This followed in the heals of National Fire Plan Objectives and local public interest in hazardous fuelsreduction following theextensive wildfires of2000.Below left to right: Tom Coston, Mary Lovejoy, Tony Liane,Brad Powell, Sue LeVan, Al Mello and Jack Eggensperger breaking ground.4What made this project special was designing it tohook into two separate buildings tying into threeexisting boiler systems. The existing boilers willfunction as backup during extreme cold weather orduring extremelymild weather.Expansion joints (as seen above) were designed by a local engineering firm to compensate for the distance thesteam line had to travel between the two buildings. After being insulated thereis very little heat loss.5Engineered to tie into the existing heating system, the new biomass burner, which runs at 100HP, replaced two steam operated boilers and onehot water boiler which ranat 265 HP, which willsave the community $30,000to $40,000 a year inheating energy consumption.Existing Jr. High boiler being tied into new system.A clean tie in at the existing High School boiler.Hot water, from a heat exchanger, is pumped tothe existing elementary system.6A construction workerinsulates hot waterpipes in the elementaryhallway with verylittle impact on existing space.Hidden overhead, well insulated lines have little orno heat loss. All construction work was done whilestudents were goneon summer break.7Right— The photo shows an overview of theentire project site. You can see the trenchingbetween buildings and beginning stages of thebiomass facility construction. Due to the professional execution of the various contractors,the project seemed to fit together like piecesof a puzzle.Left– During early summer, the photoshows the forming ofwhere the woodchips will be stored in the new biomassbuilding while construction workers perfectthe tie in of steam lines and utilities.8The above photo showsthe pumping of theconcrete for the foundation walls of the woodchip storage and boiler area of the new biomass heating facility.The photo below showsthe initial forming ofthe foundation walls for the Biomass HeatingFacility. The high school can be seen in thebackground.9The photo to the left showsthe placement of the woodchip gasifier into the broilerroom. The gasifier is the firststage of the wood chip burning process.On the right, crews align the gasifieron the pad in the boiler room.The photo to the left shows theplacement of the steam boileron top of the gasifier.10One of many field visit to Darby School’s new biomass heating facility. Theproject was nearing completion. From left to right: Nan Christiansen, SueLeVan, Nick Salmon, Dan Stevenson, Tim Maker (Sept. 24,2003)11This drawing shows the basic mechanics of atypical wood chip burning, biomass system.12Shift fromFossil FuelTo Renewable& SustainableWoodTreat Hareat Hazardous Fardous FuelsChip WasteChip WasteWoodFor BiomassFor BiomassFuelsCreateLocalJobsHeatSchoolsSchoolsReduceHeatingCosts/Save $$Save $$for Schoolsfor SchoolsFuels for Schools makes sensenot only on the local level butnationally as well. These projectsare a win/win situation for allinvolved in the economicand environmental cycles.13These photos show theautomated chip deliveryto the biomass burning system. An auger movesslowly across the bottomof the chip storage binadding the exact amount ofchips needed on theconveyor belt based oncomputer controlledmonitoring.14Large storage doors maketruck access much easier forunloading the tons of chips.Feeder augers for the biomass unit are controlled bythe amount of heatbeing called for in the twobuildings.Continuous draftfan helps withconsistent efficiency.15Left-Montana Senator ConradBurns shows his support for theDarby Fuels for Schools projectwith students from a Darby highschool government class. He letthe students knowthat he hopesthey learn and benefit from thisexciting technology.Darby’s new biomass system sparks interest from studentsas well as parents and surrounding community members.16Clean burning means less maintenance. These photos showthe that the burning is so efficient very little particulate is being released. The internal pipingis clean and on a cold day inFebruary all that can be seen outside is a small trail of steamrising from the stack.17

D ate Tons M o i s ture % T emp F Ash / C l ean (Gal)

A l a r ms Problem 0 I L /L P ( G a l ) M a i n t ( h o u r s ) S t a r tu p / S h utd o wn Visitor01/01/04 14?F01/02/04 22?F01/03/04 12.5 15?F 1001/04/04 1?F01/05/04 33% -17?F01/06/04 13.5 -22?F01/07/04 12.6 1?F 10 gal01/08/04 19?F01/09/04 17?F01/10/04 21?F01/11/04 12.7 19?F01/12/04 14?F 10 gal PHILLIPSBURG, MT.01/13/04 14.6 11?FRICK BERGMAN USFS 608231947701/14/04 46% 17?F01/15/04 26?F01/16/04 19?F 10 gal01/17/04 14.7 13?F01/18/04 17?F01/19/04 21?F 10 gal01/20/04 24?FLINCOLN, MT.01/21/04 13?FSHERIDEN,MT. VICKIE TILSTRA01/22/04 12.9 22?F406-843-4215-----536001/23/04 31?F 10 gal01/24/04 22?F01/25/04 19?F01/26/04 24?F 10 gal EUREKA,MT.TED CLARK261-070001/27/04 14.2 31?FJASON PEROCK FFS 775684253101/28/04 32?F01/29/04 28?F boiler tune-up gayland m.01/30/04 32?F 10 gal01/31/04 13.8 30?FTons rem12.0Totals 109.5 80 gal 0 gal 0Average 3.5323 40% 17?F 2.6 gal per dayStudents in the High School Technology class aremonitoring the moisture content of the wood chipsand using forms such as the excel worksheet seenin the background. The students help track thetechnical aspects as well aslogging in public visitor information.18Darby & VictorPublic SchoolsMontanaDepartmentNaturalResources &ConservationUSDA Forest Service R1/R4State & Private ForestryForest Products LabBitterroot National ForestBitter Root ResourceConservation & DevelopmentArea, Inc.BitterrootBitterrootPartners...