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Wood Chips as Fuel, Green or Not

Roger B

When Michael Moore released Planet of the Humans in 2019 the Green Movement was up in arms. A key theme of the film is how bad burning wood chips as fuel is, especially when they come from harvested timber and are shipped round the world.

Now the Green ‘think tank’ Ember is saying how bad burn wood chips is:

eandt.theiet.org/.../drax-power-plant-largest-single-source-carbon-emissions-uk-report-finds

Are people slowly starting to realise the many fallacies about ‘renewable energy’?

A quite profound quote I saw on another website:

“Climate Change has Destroyed Environmentalism”

As long as it claims to reduce CO2 emissions and is ‘renewable’ you can cut down as many trees as you like, destroy as much landscape as you like and create as much mining pollution as you like. If it helps an already rich person to get rich so much the better.

My usual disclaimer: I accept that the climate has changed, is changing and will continue to change. We should try to reduce our impact on our planet and minimize our consumption of finite resources.

Parents

  • Drax burning wood from anywhere means transporting it by lorry, ship, train, environmentally unfriendly and costing around 25% more than local wood.  But the amount of CO2 gas produced is the same as if they were burning oil or gas or coal!!! at Drax.

    So if we can source wood locally to reduce transport costs why not burn local coal like China and India do which it is economically available and helps reduce their need for oil/gas alternatives which are necessary to run their transport.

Reply

  • Drax burning wood from anywhere means transporting it by lorry, ship, train, environmentally unfriendly and costing around 25% more than local wood.  But the amount of CO2 gas produced is the same as if they were burning oil or gas or coal!!! at Drax.

    So if we can source wood locally to reduce transport costs why not burn local coal like China and India do which it is economically available and helps reduce their need for oil/gas alternatives which are necessary to run their transport.

Children
  • in reply to CliveS

    Done right, firewood is carbon neutral.  You chop down a load of trees and burn them, releasing CO2.  Then you replant new trees, or allow natural regeneration, and that absorbs all the CO2 again as the trees grow.

    But it's too easy to greenwash.  Chop down a load of trees. Sell them as "sustainable" firewood.  Turn the area into a new housing estate.

  • in reply to Simon Barker

    Hello Simon:

    Just for a frame of reference- here in the Southern US they grow Southern Pine- it grows about 2 feet a year and it reaches  50+ feet high after about 20 years.

    They used to use these trees to manufacture paper.

    So are paper sacks/bags actually carbon free?

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay  

  • in reply to Peter Brooks

    I do not mind what you burn as long as it is not gas or oil which I need for my car.

    The CO2 is good for growing vegetables as well as trees.

  • in reply to CliveS

    The July magazine had this article   

    https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/07/30/small-modular-reactor-designs-approved-first-step-towards-uk-nuclear-power-expansion   

    Looks hopeful that our base mid night load could be nuclear which need to run continuously to be efficient

    But Drax as it is using pulverised coal or wood chip could help meet the peak as it needs only 3 hours to warm up and cool down when needed.

    Looks promising for a green grid by 2050

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