Internationally important heating boiler testing laboratory opened at JAMK
The opening ceremony of the boiler testing laboratory at the Bioenergy Development Centre of the JAMK University of Applied Science on 14th February was dignified by the presence of more than one hundred experts in the field. The laboratory located in Saarijärvi is, by its magnitude, unique in the whole of Finland.
Mainly fuels and heating systems using solid fuels are tested and investigated in the laboratory. It provides a service to equipment manufacturers, fuel producers, research institutes and educational institutes. In the laboratory it is possible to investigate for example the operation, with different fuels, of a heating system as well as usability and safety of heating systems. There is also a fuel dryer that can be used to produce a desired kind of fuel for testing.
The research facility - costing nearly a million euros - produces, for equipment manufacturers and researchers, information with which the usability, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of the equipment is improved. The laboratory combines the resources and strengths of research institutes and companies. With this, the development of the industry and research in the field is ensured.
In the planning of the testing laboratory it was aimed to testing in accordance with the EN 303-5 standard. At the moment, the standard reaches the 300 kW efficiency class.
A pan-European standard for heating boilers that is under preparation will be applicable up to 500 kW. In the new laboratory, measurements and testing runs for boilers of up to 1000 kW can be performed.
In addition to JAMK's President Jussi Halttunen and the Head of the Bioenergy Development Centre Pekka Äänismaa, the speakers at the event were Mauri Pekkarinen, the Minister of Economic Affairs, and Antti Ala-Talkkari, the Managing Director of Veljekset Ala-Talkkari.
Further details:
Pekka Äänismaa, Head of the Bioenergy Development Centre, tel. +358 (0)400 279 057, pekka.aanismaa@jamk.fi, JAMK University of Technology