I saw a large open end tractor trailer to day. It was loaded wit wood chips and a lot of what I would guess to be ground pine needles. On the side of the trailer was "F L Biomass coulden't find anything on the net so I'm wondering if anyone has any insight if these will be bio bricks, pellets or just burned the way it is?
They're actually pretty good although the EPA or state equivalent has to keep a watchful eye as clean burning equipment costs money and they're in the business to make a profit. The burners are designed to burn chips that were just harvested and the fuel can actually be "too dry". There's an ideal moisture content. I visited the plan in Westminster, MA in the mid '90's shortly after it opened. They were burning the biomass that was trucked in from Maine to New Jersey. Originally they were selling the ashes to be mixed with chicken manure for fertilizer. Then the issue of ash lead content came up. Turns out the chips from New Jersey produced ash that was in the neighborhood of 100-400 times higher than the chips from Maine. Years of leaded gasoline emissions were being stored in the trees from New Jersey. When that was discovered, they had to pay to landfill the ash vice being paid for it. Anyway, IMHO, it's a great way to produce power with locally produced fuel which supports the local economy and keeps people working. Here's some info on the plant in MA. http://www.telegram.com/article/20140420/NEWS/304209958/0 Supporters of biomass power generation argue that the process is carbon-neutral, meaning the amount of carbon dioxide released by the wood materials after being burned is less than what would be released into the environment if a tree was instead left to die and decompose on the forest floor. But environmental groups disagree. A report, "Trees, Trash, and Toxics: How Biomass Energy Has Become the New Coal," released early this month by the Partnership for Policy Integrity, asserted that the biomass industry is under-regulated and over-subsidized. Another study, published in June 2010 by the Manomet Center for Conservation Studies based in Maine, also concluded that in the short term, biomass emits more carbon than fossil fuels. Yet the Manomet study concluded that because trees can be regrown, after about 30 years of new forest growth that carbon is recovered.
Very interesting, and thanks for sharing. Looks like it may be a great compliment to electricity generation. I would be curious how cost effective it is. Also where would this material end up if it wasn't burned in the plant? Landfills or sitting on the forest floor?
The VA near here went to biomass just before the new NG lines were announced! The other large facilities around here went with the NG.
I heard the VA isn't using their pellet boiler because there aren't any funds to cover the cost of people to operate it.
A large Biomass electric generation plant is doing a number on firewood availability here. Price of cordwood has gone way up. I got no problem with using biomass for electricity so long as its actual waste like tops and branches and bark etc... When they chip up good hardwood firewood logs.. well thems fighting words
In my limited understanding of the whole thing, biomass is best used in a combined heat and power generation facility. In this application, the waste heat is used to heat a building or heat for some kind of manufacturing process so by definition its the most efficient use of the material. I burn tops and branches in my stove... During shoulder season all I need is a bag of dry sticks to get the house up to temp. Of course a firewood supplier couldn't make money selling cut up branches and would probably quickly lose customers if dropping loads of 1" wood. Unfortunately, the suppliers follow the money. Like you said, firewood processors only want good firewood logs. A firewood processor might be willing to pay a $25 per ton premium on hardwood logs but if the tops and branches represent 50% of the total biomass, a logger would make more money by chipping the whole tree and delivering it all to one location vice trucking to two... Oh and they can drop the product 24/7 and get paid right away. The way you feel about firewood logs is the same way some sawmills feel about good saw logs. Why are good saw logs getting used for a low grade use of firewood thus driving up their raw material cost?
Good points!! I would think keeping your family warm is more important than having a nice dining room table...But that's just my opinion!
Very true.. But if all I had to do to get a nice dining room table was switch to burning smaller firewood, I'd do it.. More work? Yes, but I'm using more of the available resources and in the end my family would be warm AND I'd have a dining room table. (that I could burn later if needed). I cut a red oak this past weekend that had broken off in a storm halfway up. The remaining log was about 30 feet tall. I set aside the bottom 12 feet for future milling (for a bench or table) since it was so straight and cut the rest to start my '16-'17 supply.
