Many rural businesses face the daily challenge of supplying food to our homes or flowers to our gardens at competitive prices, while also meeting sustainability expectations. Historically, farms and greenhouses have relied on fossil fuels such as propane and diesel due to their easy access and well-established logistics. However, the rise of biofuels and improvements in their quality are redefining the energy landscape of the primary sector.
The growing presence of biofuel distributors and the availability of pellets, wood chips, olive pits, or other biomass demonstrate this transition, which, together with the consolidation of the guild of installers and maintainers of biomass equipment and installations, with greater experience and professionalism, helps the implementation of new installations.
Success story: La Legua Cannery
VILLORIA OTERO, an associate of AVEBIOM, has installed two 750 kW biomass hot air generators in the agri-food industry of vegetable preserves and dehydrated products LA LEGUA, located in Calahorra, La Rioja.
The generators use standardized pellets as fuel and provide the energy needed to dehydrate the vegetables using hot air. This dehydration process takes place in sealed rooms with controlled air renewal.
Using biomass as fuel allows for the amortization of equipment in a short period of time. Similarly, using biomass as fuel reduces CO2 emissions.2 emissions into the atmosphere compared to the use of fossil fuels.
Located in Santa María del Páramo (León), Villoria Otero focuses its activity on the development and manufacture of biomass-based hot air generators for the agricultural, livestock and industrial sectors, covering very varied and personalized needs.
http://www.villoriaotero.com/espanol/
Success story: VERALEZA Nursery
Another example is the Installation performed by the company CALQUEGA BIOMASS at the Veraleza nursery, located in Tomiño, A Coruña. This flower production nursery had already started using biomass in 2010, and in 2023 it took a significant step by centralizing its thermal supply through a biomass-fueled heating network.
The nursery's infrastructure includes two boiler rooms: a main room with a 1,200 kW ALOIA 1200QM-DR boiler and another with two Calquega boilers of 600 and 500 kW. These boilers, supported by a 5,000-liter buffer tank, supply heat, via air heaters and radiant tubes, to four greenhouses totaling 22,000 m². The entire pipe network extends for 350 meters.
With a thermal demand exceeding 1.5 GWh/year, the nursery uses approximately 400 tons of wood chips and byproducts from local timber industries. This initiative has reduced CO2 emissions by 221 tons per year, demonstrating a strong environmental commitment and significantly lowering its carbon footprint.
Located in Tui, Pontevedra, Calquega Biomasa manufactures, installs and maintains its biomass hot water boilers, mobile grate burners and hot air generators in farms, greenhouses, wood drying facilities and agri-food industries throughout the country.