GB No. 1(16)/95
At present, biomass is the most popular form of renewable energy in Poland. Heaps of sawdust, bark, wood waste, and decaying straw can be seen everywhere. Meanwhile, people can't afford to heat their homes with coal or coke. We already have highly-efficient (90%) central heating boilers in Poland. Their inventor, Mr. Kubacki from Hajnówka, called them moderators, because he transferred neutron moderation (which occurs in nuclear reactors) to a central heating boiler, making it possible to mix flammable gases with air and to transmit heat to water pipes.
Apart from the above-mentioned waste materials, these boilers can burn logs as well. Last year I checked it myself in my house. You add fuel to the fire 2-3 times a day, and to get the fuel, which is free, you must do just a little exercise. These boilers are cheap: about 10 mln zł ($ 500) to heat a house (25-44 kW) and about 6D mln zł to heat a factory hall of 1,500 m2 (about 400 kW). They are praised by carpenters, sawmills, churches, monasteries, and thrifty housekeepers. Mr. Kubacki, together with other craftsmen, has sold a couple of thousand moderators of various degrees of power. The total power is about 360 MW and can be compared with a fair-sized nuclear reactor (120 MW). The difference is that such a reactor costs 1-1.5 billion dollars (plus accrued interest!) while, when using moderators, craftsmen can earn, users can save money, and townspeople who buy vegetables from a greenhouse pay less for them. People who want to promote and propagate moderators are asked to contact me and write "Cheap Energy" on the envelope. Effective propagators will be given an honest commission for each sale.
Mirosław Dakowski
Niemodlińska 52
04-635 Warszawa
reprinted from Zielone Brygady 12/93
CAUTION This article is not to be read by "sleeping eco-warriors"(according to Staszek Zubek's beautiful definition).
Polish environmentalists are finally able to give positive and constructive answers to various lobbies, such as the atomic, coal-mining, and financial (World Bank) lobbies: Special boilers which bum biomass very effectively and cheaply have started to work.
I wrote about the moderator designed by Kubacki, an engineer from Hajnówka, in the December issue of Zielone Brygady (see above). The article must have been very boring, for only one and a half readers responded to my appeal for help with the moderator propaganda -- and the response was one of rather "wishful thinking" at that.
Further production of moderators is endangered by the Revenue Department. To make it even funnier, since Elżbieta Jaworowicz's intervention programme "Case for a Reporter", official efforts have been supported by the public prosecutor (probably as revenge for "slandering" the office!). Once more I am asking for help in propagating the moderators. People who help in taking orders will get a satisfactory payment.
Or maybe the help will be given by the Minister of Environmental Protection, the President's Consultant in Environmental Matters, or the manager of the National Environment Protection Fund. Unfortunately, their titled colleagues from the Ministry of Finance hold their tongues, and the inventor, instead of inventing and improving, has been fighting against unfounded allegations for 9 months. He is being hounded.
Let's move on to the environmental advantages of the moderator. The latest report made by experts from the Research Centre for Heat Engineering proved that emission of harmful gases in properly operated moderators is very low. The level of carbon monoxide (CO) in fumes is about 0.02%, while in standard coal-fired boilers an output of 0.5 - 1% is considered good. Because
the combustion temperature is very low, the level of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in emissions is only about 0.002%(!). The level of sulphur in the form of SO2 does not exceed 0.05-0.09%, depending on the type of biomass burned. The most important fact, which is difficult for some people (especially so-called "scientific workers") to understand, is that net emission of CO2 is ZERO because with renewable fuel the amount of C02 emitted is absorbed in photosynthesis within one year. This is the time for straw; the period for willows is three years, but net emission is still zero. This feature of moderators is of tremendous significance to the environment (moderators do not contribute so much to the buildup of greenhouse gases which could potentially lead to global warming). And in the EU, it has financial significance, as well: many countries have introduced high taxes on CO2 emissions. Companies which use renewable fuel boilers can avoid paying this tax.
In Poland, everyone installing very powerful moderators (local administrators, headmasters of schools, and maybe parish priests) have solid reasons to apply to the Regional Environmental Protection Fund for a grant.
I strongly appeal to everyone,
Let's wake up! Let's not waste this opportunity!
Mirosław Dakowski
reprinted from Zielone Brygady 6/94