Recent Health and Safety Incident Trends Related to the Storage of Woody Biomass: A Need for Improved Monitoring Strategies
Open accessAbstract
Self-heating fires, dust explosions and off-gassing during biomass storage are serious hazards which can have devastating consequences, resulting in worker fatalities and health impacts, as well as bioenergy plant destruction and complete loss of production. A compilation of incident reports involving biomass storage from 2000–2018 has revealed that these potential hazards continue to be a major concern in the bioenergy sector. Higher occurrence rates were found for incidents categorized as self-heating fires and fires of uncertain causes in recent years through our study of online reports. This paper highlights a critical need for improved safety protocols for bioenergy plant workers, detailed incident documentation and enhanced biomass monitoring strategies to drastically reduce the occurrence of threats associated with the storage of woody biomass. In order to manage the high risks associated with self-heating, a system for real-time monitoring of internal pile temperature was investigated. A monitoring system supplied by Braingrid Corporation was verified using embedded Tinytag thermologgers indicating that this methodology shows potential for preventing spontaneous combustion events by providing real time temperature data for superior pile management.
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Packed volumes amplify heat build-up, yet this effect is secondary to biochar properties-B800 and HTB800 fines at full basket volume still passed.
“Packed volumes amplify heat build-up, yet this effect is secondary to biochar properties-B800 and HTB800 fines at full basket volume still passed [115,116].”
From Pilot-Scale Slow Pyrolysis, Post-Heat Treatment, and Self-Heating Performance of Biochar Fuels Derived from Construction, Renovation, and Demolition (CRD) Wood Waste (2026) · cites this paper as [116]
The Introduction describes hazardous self-heating in large biomass piles, and §4.2 says compaction can influence pile temperature. The paper does not establish that volume is secondary to biochar properties or report basket tests of B800 and HTB800 fines; no page numbers were available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Self-Heating of Biochar during Postproduction Storage by O2 Chemisorption at Low Temperatures
Phounglamcheik, A., Johnson, N., Kienzl, N., Strasser, C., & Umeki, K. (2022) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en15010380 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
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Ganesan, A., Barnabé, S., Langlois, S., Rezazgui, O., Bareha, Y., & Boussabbeh, C. (2026) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en19133097 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Krigstin, S., Wetzel, S., Jayabala, N., Helmeste, C., Madrali, S., Agnew, J., & Volpe, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Natural Resources Canada (CA)
- Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (CA)
- FPInnovations, 570 Saint-Jean Blvd, Pointe-Claire, QC H9R 3J9, Canada
- Corresponding author
- Krigstin, Sally
- ORCID
- Krigstin, Sally
- Venue
- Forests
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-09-01
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 538
- ISSN
- 1999-4907 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2889203247
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5
- FWCI
- 1.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Forests (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- TSpace (University of Toronto) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Natural Resources Canada (<>)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Forest Biomass Utilization and Management
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Industrial and Mining Safety
- Keywords
- spontaneous combustion, dust explosions, outgassing, incidence trends, occupational safety
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