Second year pupils at Aboyne Academy have been given a unique insight into a world without oil or gas by learning more about the new biomass boiler on their doorstep.

The school’s boiler depends upon a renewable energy source, woodchips, produced as a by-product from local sawmills and through collaboration between teachers at Aboyne Academy, staff from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen and a local forester, Mr Irvine Ross, around 40 second year pupils have been involved over the past 2 months in a project which aims to find out just how big an area of woodland is needed to keep the school’s biomass boiler going for a year.

In the ‘Forest to Fire’ project, pupils have had to learn how to measure the height and diameter of growing trees, calculate the volume of wood in a tree, and then estimate the weight of wood in a hectare of woodland. They also had to work out how many lorry loads, and the weight of woodchips, that are being delivered to school to keep the biomass boiler burning for a year. With all these measurements and calculations in place, the pupils have been able to work out that it takes about 10 hectares of woodland, equivalent to about 20 football pitches, to fuel the boiler for a year.

Commenting on their results, Mr Irvine Ross said, “The pupils had done an excellent job in learning the practical aspects of forest measurement which are employed on a day to day basis in the forest industry across Scotland. Their results were along the lines expected and when you taken into account the fact that the average Scots Pine tree takes about 70 years to mature, they mean that the biomass boiler at Aboyne Academy requires an area of woodland of around 700 hectares, or around 140 football pitches, to be kept going in the long term.”

Dr Richard Birnie, Head of Communications for the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute said, “Whilst this project is being pioneered by staff from the Maths faculty and is primarily aimed at helping pupils understand that mathematics is relevant in many different ways to the world outside the classroom, the project also touches on many other aspects of the school curriculum including biology, physics, chemistry and geography. The project is intended to raise the general level of awareness about how we depend on environment for a whole range of things other than water and food. The biomass boiler is a perfect illustration of this as it fundamentally connects the school heating to the local woodland. Put another way: no trees, no heat!”

Mr Raymond Jowett, headmaster at Aboyne Academy welcomed this initiative and commented, “The project is highly relevant to developing the pupils learning skills across maths, science and social subjects. It is also helping them develop their abilities to work as part of a team. This type of project is very much at the heart of how Scottish education is developing and we are pleased that school staff and pupils are getting the opportunity to collaborate with local employers and research organisations.”

Through collaboration with SETPOINT at the University of Aberdeen, all the projects are being put forward for a ‘Creativity in Science and Technology’ (CREST) Award from the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the 10 teams presented their results to a panel of judges at the school last Friday. The members of the two winning teams were: Robbie Shaw, Alex Day, Charlie Hart, Ashleigh Kellas, Emma Petrie, Jodie Shepherd, Karl Johnson and Angus Stewart.

ENDS

Information for Editors

The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute was founded in 1930 and is an international centre for research and consultancy on the environmental and social consequences of rural land uses. With an annual income from research and consultancy of over ?11m, the Institute is the largest interdisciplinary research organisation of its kind in Europe, and aims to provide evidence to help shape future environmental and rural-development policy on a national and international basis. For further information, visit www.macaulay.ac.uk .

The Aboyne Academy Biomass Boiler

As part of an initiative by Aberdeenshire Council, Aboyne Academy was one of the first schools in Scotland to have a biomass boiler. This was installed in February 2007 and is operated under contract with Caledon Buccleuch. Caledon Buccleuch constructed a new boiler house and fuel store and installed a KOHLBACH 600kW biomass boiler. The Aboyne Academy site includes an academy, primary school, indoor swimming pool, library, theatre and community centre. The computerised control system enables the biomass boiler to become the lead boiler to provide heating and hot water to the site. The two existing 1460kW oil-fired boilers now act as a top up system in extreme conditions and as a full back up system. The biomass boiler is linked to a 20,000 litre buffer tank to respond to peak heat demands. The wood fuel is delivered by tipper lorry into the underground bunker. The wood fuel is then moved along a walking floor into a feed trough where it is pushed by hydraulic ram into the boiler system. The Kohlbach boiler is able to burn mixtures of wood fuel with up to 60% moisture content and the ram stoker feed system allows for wood fuel of random sizes to be used, such as wood chips, sawdust and bark. The biomass boiler will produce over 2,000,000 kWhrs of renewable energy each year from approximately 1,100 tonnes of locally sourced woodfuel. This replaces around 200,000 litres of heating oil and reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 600 tonnes per year.

For further information contact:

Clare Neely

The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute

Craigiebuckler

Aberdeen

AB15 8QH

Tel: 01224 395087

Fax: 01224 395010