Help for Traders

If you are producing material at scale in the UK or importing it from abroad then there is quite a bit of information that you will need to collate. We need to see this information so we can calculate the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of your fuel from source to end user.

You will need details of:

• The origin of the material (for large volumes then this is likely to be regional rather than field scale)
• Distance from origin to processing location
• Fuel used in transport from source to the processing location
• Energy use for drying and processing
• Volumes or weights of the material
• Moisture contents at various stages of drying and processing
• Fuel used for transport in the processing facility and for storage and handling
• Fuel used in transport to the end user

For imports you will also need details of:

• Fuel used in transport to the port
• Origin port and UK port
• Distance (nautical miles) from port to port

If you have a complicated supply chain, please contact us. We can provide you with a template spreadsheet and more guidance.

You will also need a bespoke Land Criteria Declaration. This is required as evidence that the land from where the material was sourced was not virgin land (e.g. wetland, ancient woodland, protected landscape etc) back in 2008. This is in line with EUs Renewable Energy Directive.

If you are producing lots of material, it is likely to be sourced from many original farms and assembled at processing facilities. The bespoke LC declaration should demonstrate that the chances of the materials coming from a protected area to be very low. (This is similar to a Risk Based Regional Assessment required for Biomass Suppliers List registration).

If you wish to produce this yourself, we can provide a template for you to add the following details:

• Regional and national production levels of your source biomass
• Yields of source biomass in your region of origin
• Address details and maps of location of the processing facility
• Images of the processing facility and steps in the fuel production process.

In most situations, if there is a mature supply chain for your biomass raw material there will be online sources of information that you can use as evidence.

If you are confident that you can do your own bespoke LC declaration, please contact us. We can provide you with a template and more guidance.

If you are already starting to have doubts, do not worry, we have helped many traders get through the process using our assisted application service.

We have two relevant packages that we can offer traders:

1. Premier – from £500 plus VAT This is for a busy trader who can provide some of the information but needs help making a sound application. You may have been importing non-wood products for years but now see an opportunity for this material in the RHI biomass market. You may have a good knowledge of the supply chain but want to make sure that everything is done right.
2. Premier Plus – from £750 plus VAT This is for the trader who needs hand holding at every step. You may be new to non-wood fuels but want to harness the opportunity that the RHI provides. We will track down the supply chain of your product and produce a bespoke Land Criteria declaration.

If you would like to engage us to do an assisted application, please contact us.

One of the big issues with the RHI is that although most sources of biomass are classed as eligible fuels you still have to jump through some hoops to make sure that your customer can continue to claim the RHI when using them.

The issues are: 

• You will need a valid emissions certificate for your biomass fuel in your customers boiler. Most people already have boilers installed, registered on the RHI with Ofgem and therefore will have an emissions certificate for the fuel they are currently using (usually wood of some form)
• Most new fuel enquiries that we get are unlikely to have a valid emissions certificate. If that is indeed the case you would need to identify a boiler that can use the fuel effectively, a user willing to trial the product and then perform an in situ emissions test on that boiler. This is all time consuming and expensive. 
• Even if you can get the emissions certificate for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates (PM) below the required thresholds you will then need to get any customer with that brand of boiler to agree to take the fuel (doable if the price is right) but they would need to make an amendment to their RHI agreement (this is where most people go off the idea - it can take months, can affect RHI payments and most people worry that rocking the boat will lead to extra unwanted scrutiny and a possible audit).

We have some traders who have gone through this protracted process and have made it work. However, many others have decided it is not for them.

If you are based abroad or don’t have the necessary skills, we can help with a holistic service helping people get the necessary emissions certificates. It's not cheap as there is a lot of leg work and the requirement to have an engineer on site to make sure all the tweaks are made to get the right result. Also, there is no guarantee that the emissions thresholds will be met so there is a relatively high degree of risk. As a result, we would charge up front for this service.

If you are still keen, please contact us.

In order to ensure that the sustainability of an authorised fuel is traceable, from origin to final use, it is necessary to track the ownership of the fuel. Producers and traders need to allocate fuel sold or transferred to another trader or user through their SFR account, and in turn those in receipt of an authorised fuel will need to accept the fuel in their SFR account.

Therefore, it is necessary for all those in the custody chain to have an SFR account. Each new owner of fuel will receive their own unique SFR number for the fuel.

Allocating a fuel a fuel is easy. In your Dashboard select the SFR fuel you wish to allocate from and add a tonnage figure. You will need to have the email address of the SFR account that you are allocating fuel to. As you allocate fuel, the amount of fuel available under that SFR number reduces. It is not possible to allocate more fuel than what you have registered.

It is possible to allocate fuel to your own account, if you are also using the fuel in an RHI accredited system.

It’s important that your customers know that they need to accept allocated fuel. When they accept the fuel from your account, they will get a unique SFR number, and this is the one that they need to submit as part of their RHI periodic reporting.

If you have any queries about allocating fuel, please contact us.