During 1987During -1989 The Research Institute of Northern Finland (Univ. of Oulu) developed a method for observing the self-heating in peat stockpiles using aerial thermography. The method and the results of the research have been presented at the Thermosense XIIIconference in 1991. The significance of peat as a local source of energy in district heating and electric power production is increasing in Finland and regular limited aerial supervision of peat stockpiles has been carried out from 1990 onwards. The supervision of peat stockpiles has proved to be economically viable and since 1991 efforts have been made to extend the use of aerial thermography and supplementary methods as means of improving and controlling peat production. The problems for which thermography and auxiliary methods have been applied are as follows:presents preliminary results on the use of thermography in defining the differences in the basic drying level of peat production fields. 0-8 194-1 169-8/93/$4.OO SPIE Vol. 1 933 Thermosense XV (1 993) I 101 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/03/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx

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Recent development in energy prices has turned the attention of man to energy sources: new sources are searched for and conventional means of energy production are critically investigated in order to optimize their utilization. One source of energy, the importance of which has been realized with the advance of increasing fuel prices, is peat, a renewing resource of nature typical for some areas in northern Europe. Because of the comparatively difficult processing properties of peat and the quite short history of efficient development on this area the technology of peat burning plants now needs a systematic programme of development, especially concerning small andmiddle-sized plants. The present work is aimed at identifying and mapping practical possibilities for optimizing the total economic performance of the plant type in question. The following principal programme was used: lo identification of the optimization objectives for existing plants 2. selection of subjects of closer study 3. realization of the most recommendable studies 4. identification of optimization objectives to be considered for future plants The present work necessarily will have a practical character due to the specific problem but simultaneously it shows the need for modelling and optimization studies when plant development procedures in generally are planned. The straightforward approach taken here partly reflects also a situation quite common for practical decision making: available data is limited and also non-numerical information has to be used.