Thermal Energy Produced from Discarded Christmas Trees

Up to 40 tons of pine trees discarded after the Christmas holidays may be burned in the coming period at the Pécs thermal power plant in southern Hungary, which operates with two biomass-fired units, the owner Veolia Energia Magyarország Zrt. stated.

According to their statement, the Pécs thermal power plant, which is based purely on biomass and provides district heating for 31,500 homes and 480 public institutions, is continuing a tradition of more than 15 years by recycling Christmas trees that become surplus.

Pine trees discarded from households and collected by the end of January are chopped up at the plant using mobile shredders, and then sent to the bulk biomass unit, where they are mixed with other fuels, including agricultural by-products and forestry wood chips, due to their high resin content, to make the most efficient use of the wood and minimize the use of the boilers.

They said that

the reuse of tens of thousands of Christmas trees collected from across the city can generate a significant amount of clean, green energy, with around 35-40 tons of pine waste collected- enough to heat 85 average-sized homes for a month.

This is not the only way to make use of the rubbish left over after the Christmas holidays. The last of the New Year’s Eve revelers were still on the streets when the staff of waste management company FKF started cleaning up the capital’s public spaces at 6am on January 1. The rubbish is used for more than just any purpose: the accessories, like trumpets and hats left behind from public celebrations, are first disposed of in an environmentally friendly way and then taken to the Budapest Waste Treatment Plant. Once there, the waste is turned into energy through incineration, producing central heating and electricity.

Featured photos via MTI/Mónus Márton