Sustainability of Wood as a fuel??

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In the northern countries Spruce - Pine - Birch are the most common woods and people manage to keep warm. I have also planted loads of Eucalyptus and high prune each season and use a leaf and horse muck mulch which makes the growth rates high. Frost does not seem to effect certain species of them as Australia has them in the mountains with snow and ice.

 

The main issue I can see is the huge amount of mineral diesel used at present to process a single tree into so called green sustainable fuels. Some I know are using 2000LTRS in 12hrs.

[firewood]

In the northern countries Spruce - Pine - Birch are the most common woods and people manage to keep warm. I have also planted loads of Eucalyptus and high prune each season and use a leaf and horse muck mulch which makes the growth rates high. Frost does not seem to effect certain species of them as Australia has them in the mountains with snow and ice.

 

The main issue I can see is the huge amount of mineral diesel used at present to process a single tree into so called green sustainable fuels. Some I know are using 2000LTRS in 12hrs.

 

But what tonnage is being extracted for that 2000 litres. The mechanical advantage gained from a modern harvester must be immense.

 

http://www.kinnoirwoodfuel.co.uk

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But what tonnage is being extracted for that 2000 litres. The mechanical advantage gained from a modern harvester must be immense.

 

kwfhomepage

 

Fuel used in harvesters/skidding tractors/the trucks used to transport tree lengths/the large chipping machine all to produce a single cube of woodchips.

 

That's without the original purchase costs/servicing/mending.

 

I was involved in the first practical stages of woodfuel heating chipping in the UK a long time ago and am happy to be out now as still numerous issues there that need to be resolved. FC wanted the wood weighed when fresh felled and the large plant furnace wanted to purchase at 14% moisture content and paid on the oven dried ton.

 

Coppice local logs are sustainable.

[Stereo]

Dare I say the extraction equipment could run on biodiesel? The problem is with so many people in the UK, we just won't have enough land for heat and food.

 

I guess the solution is many more land owners of traditionally unproductive land turning to coppice to supply the local firewood market and other solutions such and nuclear and wind / wave for the cities? It's pretty fair to say (as a farmer's son) that the output of meat from grazing land is not very efficient I wouldn't have thought.

[corylus]

Dare I say the extraction equipment could run on biodiesel? The problem is with so many people in the UK, we just won't have enough land for heat and food.

 

I guess the solution is many more land owners of traditionally unproductive land turning to coppice to supply the local firewood market and other solutions such and nuclear and wind / wave for the cities? It's pretty fair to say (as a farmer's son) that the output of meat from grazing land is not very efficient I wouldn't have thought.

 

John Seymour made a sensible comment regarding this along the lines of, it takes 10kg of wheat to produce 1kg of meat, so why not eat 1/2 kg of meat (ie less) and 5Kg of wheat. A step in the right direction mi thinks. Not that i'm anti-meat, just pees me off that we are over-run with bunnies and other wild 'food', which is hitching a (not so) free ride AND causing us big problems, and few want to eat it.

 

Now wheres the recipe for Hunters pie?

[pembswoodrecycling]

Grow wheat for food, use the straw as Biomass, seems quite straight forward to me, any land that can't grow crops plant up with trees and/or graze sheep on.

[Treecreeper1961]

Grow wheat for food, use the straw as Biomass, seems quite straight forward to me, any land that can't grow crops plant up with trees and/or graze sheep on.

Sounds like a sensible suggestion but it's still take, take and take. The straw was traditionally used as bedding and eventually put back into the earth as a good blend of organic matter that added structure to the soil. We can't burn it all, can we?

[farmer rod]

has anyone got any idea how much eucalyptus you get per acre per year, or larch?

[Crazy Cutter]

Sounds like a sensible suggestion but it's still take, take and take. The straw was traditionally used as bedding and eventually put back into the earth as a good blend of organic matter that added structure to the soil. We can't burn it all, can we?

 

A lot of farms here straw chop at harvest so it goes straight back in to save on fertiliser. Again for the second year there is a national shortage of straw and the price has risen so would there be enough for bio-mass?

[bunnybasher100]

once its looked in to its mind blowing, looking at the fc stats its going to be a uphill strugle and dosn't look possible.

Taken as a average uk woods will produce 18millon m3 soft wood and 5millon m3 in broadleaf wood this does not take in to account coppice.

One of the main problems that needs to be over come is the amount of woodland that is being used for pleasure by the FC and the 11million ha that are used for personal use ie owned by farms, phesant shooting, 4x4, horseriding ect.

for example for people that don't know a biomass factory making wood pellets with two presses will need 460ton on average per 24hour so thats 167,900tons a year as they run 24/7 i know of 2 like this used to work in one.

Then there other thing people over look is woodshavings that are made from round timber and average factory will need 105,300tons a year there are 3 of this type in the uk ,also know this as i worked in one.

both these factorys arn't that good on the enviroment as all the product is dried from around 50% down to around 12% with either gas or coal.

 

just my little add