wood pellets

The Underutilized Forest and Wood Biofuel

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As people are waiting for “them” to make biofuel available as a source of energy there are many of us who have been using forest biofuel to heat our homes for generations. This biofuel is sold on the free market without government subsidies or a need for more research and development.

Wood can be made into many biofuel products like methane, alcohol, or diesel and it can be burned directly to power electric generators to produce electricity. All of these are expensive and energy intensive. After refining wood into these biofuels the cost and energy used has not made wood biofuel a viable source of energy. The exception to that is burning wood to generate electricity which has experienced some commercial success.

What people often overlook is a form of wood biofuel that requires very little or no processing and that is wood as a heating fuel. While people are waiting for biofuel they are still using fossil fuels to heat their homes when they could switch today to an economically proven biofuel heat source which is to burn wood.

Since there is little or no processing required, direct heating with wood is more efficient than turning wood into another fuel such as diesel or electricity. The raw material is directly converted to the desired product which is heat.

The most basic form of wood biofuel is simple firewood for wood stoves and fireplaces. This is a very desirable form of energy for many homes but it’s not for everyone. Burning firewood does have some disadvantages such as wood handling, it can be messy and can produce smoke. Although modern wood stoves have come a long way in reducing emissions and efficiency. Modern wood stoves can burn with no visible smoke. Burning firewood is not as convenient as other heat sources since you have to continually feed fuel into the fire.

The alternative to fireplaces and firewood stoves is wood pellet stoves. Wood pellets require more processing but pellet stoves are more efficient than firewood stoves so it makes up for the difference. A pellet stove combines the use of renewable biofuel with the convenience of traditional electric, gas or oil heating systems.

Pellet stoves have automatic fuel feeding systems and are thermostatically controlled. Wood pellets are available today and have been proven as a heat source that is competitive and can even cost less than fossil fuels.

Both firewood and wood pellets are available as a practical source of forest biofuel that you can start using today. Which one you choose depends on your situation and preferences.

Learn more about wood pellets and learn more about firewood as biofuels.

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What is Biomass and Is it a Practical Source of Energy?

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Biomass is any organic material that is made by plants and animals. This includes all parts of plants, animal flesh and excretions such as manure. Biomass in rich in energy that can be used for fuel which is called biofuel.

Fossil fuels are also a biomass since it’s believed that they come from ancient plants and animals. But usually when people speak of biomass they are talking about material produced from sources that are alive now or were recently.

Biofuel is often talked about as though it was a new technology that we can use in the future to help solve our energy supply problems. But humans have been using biofuel since the beginning of humanity. The food we eat is a form of biofuel that we wouldn’t exist without. Humans have also used plant materials such as wood wax and whale oil as a fuel to burn for heat and light for thousands of years.

Newer technologies have allowed us to use biomass for making other biofuels. Biomass can be burned to power electric generators or made into methane, alcohol or bio diesel for powering our cars. These processes are energy intensive meaning a lot of energy is lost in converting biomass into the other forms of fuel or energy. Because of this these biofuels have not been cost effective or practical.

With all the technology going into biofuel research the one form of biofuel that we have been using since ancient times still remains the most efficient and practical. Burning biomass such as wood for direct heating is still the most efficient.

Instead of focusing on trying to use biomass to fuel our cars and generate electricity we may be better off using it to heat our homes and buildings. Firewood may not be practical for most people but pellets made from wood and other biomass may be. Burning pellets is cost effective, clean and may be the most efficient way to utilize the energy in biomass.

For those who want to use biomass as a renewable energy source heating with wood or other biomass pellets are practical and economical and the technology and distribution systems are already available.

Learn more about how biomass works.

Learn more about wood pellets.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allen_M_Wilson

A Practical Way To Power Your Home With Biofuel

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Many people have been lead to believe that using biofuel and other forms of alternative energy is impractical and not economical. For most, it’s just an idea that will hopefully be available in the future. But many people are already using a form of biofuel in their homes that is not talked about much.

For thousands of years this fuel has been used. It is very abundant in some places and in a lot of cases over abundant. what I am talking about is wood. Wood sometimes has a bad reputation because to many the idea of burning wood sounds like it would be bad for the environment.

When many people, who are concerned about the environment, think of burning wood, the first things they think about is smoke and clearing forests to get the wood. Smoke from wood stoves and fireplaces can be a problem, especially in urban areas and areas with poor air circulation like valleys.

Modern wood stoves have come a long way in helping the air pollution problem.

Many of them now can burn with very little if any visible smoke. And a more practical way for most people to use wood as fuel is to burn wood pellets. Pellets burn clean and are almost as convenient to use and install as a gas or electric furnace.

As far as destroying forests to burn for energy, it really isn’t happening in the modern industrialized world. There is plenty of waste wood from the wood products industry and forest enhancement projects that is not being utilized. The forest products industry knows that most larger trees are too valuable for other products to be cutting them down to make firewood or wood pellets.

Most of our forests have way too many trees to begin with.

From past mismanagement and other factors, our forests have become severely overcrowded. Trees have to compete with each other which slows their growth and makes them more vulnerable to fire and disease. In thinning operations, foresters will leave the bigger healthy trees and remove the competing smaller and slower growing trees. Many of these are too small or not the right quality for making lumber and other products.

This small low grade material can be ideal for making firewood or pellets. Unfortunately the demand is not great enough to utilize all this material. Most of it ends up being burned on site or left to rot. If more people would start heating their homes with pellets, this material could be used instead of going to waste. Whether it is burned in your home, in the forest or left to rot, either way the CO2 is released into the atmosphere. So we might as well be extracting the energy from it instead of burning non renewable fossil fuels.

Burning wood may not be for everyone, but burning wood pellets may be feasible for most. If you are interested in using alternative energy, do some research into wood pellets or a wood stove.

Learn more about firewood including how to measure a cord of wood.

Learn the differences between using firewood logs and wood pellets. Discover the process of making wood pellets.

Power Your Home With Biofuel

Modern biomass heating systems

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If you are considering installing a biomass boiler system there are many important things you must consider for successful project. Perhaps the three most important points are:

1. Know which fuel is suitable for your project Logs, wood chips or wood pellets.

2. Use proven technology Your project should not try to do anything that hasnt been done before!

3. Ensure you use good quality wood fuel Most problems encountered with wood heating projects tend to be caused by poor quality or incorrect wood fuel rather than the system installed.

By the end of this guide you should be able to go some way towards addressing each of these points, and with the help of the Wood Fuel South West Advice Service, we hope to ensure you have access to a reliable heat supply.

This guide is principally concerned with wood fuelled boiler systems, not room stoves (although we do provide basic information on stoves).

Typically the boilers will be fed with either wood chip or wood pellets, however smaller systems for domestic buildings may also use logs. We will refer to wood fuel boilers as biomass boilers in this guide. Biomass boiler technology is proven, reliable, clean and efficient. Modern biomass boilers are very common across Europe, particularly in Austria, Sweden and Finland. Austria has approximately 100,000 biomass boilers installed, with a reliable local wood fuel supply network in place.

Biomass boilers can operate at 92% efficiency levels, comparable with modern gas condensing boilers. Within this information pack we have included a list of suppliers and installers who are able to undertake projects in the South West. Many of these companies use technology from Austria, Sweden, Germany and other countries who have been working with biomass boilers extensively over the last 20 years. This has been demonstrated time and time again internationally.

Even with a specific form of fuel, such as wood chips, there can be major differences in characteristics. This means that while it is all eminently usable, one batch will allow a particular piece of equipment to operate according to specification, but another may cause blockages in the fuel feed line, inefficient operation, emissions, condensation in the flue, or automatic shut down of the equipment as it moves outside its design operating regime.

In different equipment, however, the second batch of fuel may be perfectly acceptable. Clear technical specifications are needed which can be incorporated into supply contracts. The European Union has developed specifications and standards CEN/TC 335 for solid biofuels. CEN/TC 335 is the technical committee developing the draft standard to describe all forms of solid biofuels within Europe, including wood chips, wood pellets and briquettes, logs, sawdust and straw bales.

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