CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 35, 2013 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Petar Varbanov, Jiří Klemeš, Panos Seferlis, Athanasios I. Papadopoulos, Spyros Voutetakis Copyright © 2013, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-26-6; ISSN 1974-9791 Estimation of the Potential for Low Cost Solid Fuels of Selected Areas in Hungary and Greece Evangelos Karlopoulos* ,a , Panagiotis Grammelis a , Maria Christidou a , Tibor Chovan b , Petar S. Varbanov b , Jiří J. Klemeš b aCentre for Research and Technology Hellas, Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute, 4th. km Ptolemaida Mpodosakio Hospital Area, P.O. Box 95, 502 00 Ptolemaida, Greece bUniversity of Pannonia, Egyetem u. 10, H-8200 Veszprém, Hungary karlopoulos@lignite.gr The biomass inventories in selected geographical areas for both countries, Hungary and Greece are determined in this paper. Particular emphasis is given to low cost opportunity fuels. This type of fuels does not require biomass cultivation processes (fertilizer and irrigation) and consequently energy exploitation shows increased environmental benefits. Those fuels are frequently used to supplement fossil energy sources, such as coal and oil. They may be even used as the main fuel for specific boilers or kilns. This study refers to the European legislation which determines the framework for rational and environmentally friendly practices for wood waste management. It also refers to the wood waste classification systems and the currently applied methods of wood waste disposal and reuse. The available biomass potential is reflected for the selected areas of Hungary and Greece, on an annual basis in order to minimise problems of periodicity and to guarantee steady supply to the potential consumers. 1. Introduction Energy consumption is as unevenly divided across various sectors of industrialised economies as it is across geographic regions. Electricity generation provides a critical example because of the significance of electrification in world economies. The energy-consumption patterns of electricity generation and the process industries show a significant potential for using opportunity fuels. The efficient employment of renewables, including solar and its dynamic availability has become a research and development priority (Manenti and Ravaghi-Ardebili, 2013). Economic trends such as electricity-generation deregulation and increased global competition in the production of basic goods provide significant incentive for the owners of production facilities to seek the maximum use of opportunity fuels because of their favourable influence on specific plant economics. Environmental trends — including stricter regulations regarding the formation and release of pollutants such as SO2, and NOx — also promote the use of opportunity fuels. Greenhouse gas emissions are also regulated by the EU and many countries and are the subject of voluntary programs in other countries. These forces the combination to increase the focus upon the unconventional energy resources available to electricity generators and industrial establishments (Tillman, 2004). Among opportunity fuels, wood waste is very promising option. Waste wood comes from a wide variety of sources, in varying quantities and levels of purity. The main three areas in which waste wood is generated are: Construction and Demolition (C&D), Municipal waste (MSW) (Fodor and Klemeš, 2011) and Commercial and Industrial waste (C&I) (Nemet et al, 2011). A feature of waste wood arising, particularly from C&D and MSW, is that both the quantity and sources are unpredictable and materials are often mixed with other types of waste. This paper aims to present the categories of waste suitable for energy generation and the motivations for its utilisation. and analyses the challenges for using waste and the thermochemical technologies for its conversion to energy. 619