For years now people have been writing about the decline of the timber industry in this country. All kinds of factors have been blamed: bad policies out of Washington, D.C., recession, outsourcing, deforestation (due to insects and invasive plants), and so on.
Besides that, young people nowadays aren’t that interested in working in the timber business, insiders say. There is some concern over who will fill jobs in the future.
But there is a bright spot of potential in this picture: the push for wood-derived biofuels.
Woodlands in the U.S. produce about 370 million dry tons of woody biomass every year. This biomass includes:
- diseased and infested trees
- trees felled by extreme weather conditions like hurricanes
- “slash” – branches, limbs, and stumps left after timber harvesting
- understory – small-diameter trees, or “thinnings,” removed because they might serve as a “fire bridge” between forest floor and canopy
- mill residues – sawdust, bark, and “black liquor” (what’s left after cellulose fibers are removed from the slurry that forms paper)
- urban wood waste – discarded furniture, pallets, processed lumber, and yard and tree trimmings
Typically, a lot of this woody biomass is burned, left to rot, or put in landfills. But people in government and industry are seeing it as a great potential energy source.
A lot of liquid fuel can come from woody biomass – things like ethanol, methanol, and bio-oil. The production of bio-oil, or bio-crude, occurs through the process of pyrolysis.
What they do is heat the biomass in an oxygen-free environment. Because there’s no oxygen present, the material doesn’t burn; instead, it decomposes into bio-oil, char, and non-compressible gases.
Bio-oil multiplies the energy yield of biomass by 12 to 15 times. It’s clean-burning and bio-friendly (carbon-neutral). The problem, though, is that it’s generally unstable and corrosive. So they still have to formulate upgrades for it that would overcome some of the problems with its transportation and storage.
If you slow down the heating rate of pyrolysis, the major product is bio-char. Bio-char is also called torrefied wood (“TW”). TW eliminates some of the problems associated with bio-oil.
TW is a charcoal-like solid that’s water-resistant, non-perishable, and energy-dense. It can be stored for long periods, so its transportation costs are lower than those of green wood chips. And it definitely has a higher BTU value per ton than green wood chips. Its energy content is said to be comparable to coal.
When it’s used as a replacement for coal, it produces a lot less ash, and its sulfur emissions are low.
It’s still going to be a long time before bioenergy is truly competitive with petroleum-based fuels. A few years ago, Chevron announced that it was joining forces with Weyerhaeuser, whose name means “Big Timber,” to research ways to make biofuels commercially viable. Their emphasis was on ethanol, the production of which has been controversial.
Weyerhaeuser is also in partnership with Mitsubishi to explore bio-char production.
I don’t think anyone is surprised that these giant corporations are co-opting the biofuels industry. Only the big energy companies can offer the economies of large-scale operations that will get bioenergy off the ground, they say.
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I find it so amusing that I’m the first one to comment on this post.
It a post isn’t dealing with blacks, Jews, or other race related issues, then it doesn’t get too many comments.
If a blogger ever wants to generate a firestorm of comments, then all he has to do is talk about black men fucking white women, or white men fucking black women.
Don’t believe me? Just try it!
Yes, sometimes you want to pass along information. Bioenergy caught my attention, especially the alternatives to things like ethanol.
Hey, the more you know.
By the way, have you considered doing a guest post on my suggestion?
(in the suggestions)
I don’t know how effective it would be. Even though I know for a fact that not all Whites are racist, and that there are plenty of Blacks who feel the same way, it’s not something I could really demonstrate.
Yeah, who needs pyrolysis, when you have Jews?
Lol!
Yeah, Jews are just somehow much more interesting to discuss.
Yeah, I knew you were saying that tongue-in-cheek.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.
The fact that Jews are very interesting to discuss is true, that is.
I guess I wasn’t really paying attention to your ovens humor.
Funny how Jews are probably one of the few groups that jokes about its holocaust. As Jews say among themselves, “there’s no business like Shoah business.”
I’m pretty sure that Jews don’t say that among themselves.
Well, not out in the open, anyway.
I actually originally heard this from Norman Finkelstein of all people.
A bit of a self-hating Jew, perhaps, but he’s nowhere near to being like Bro Nathanael.
So I logged on to read about bio-energy, and was amazed at the ridiculousness of the comments. I suppose I am bringing myself down to the level just by responding, but seriously people. Try to have a frank discussion about the matter at hand.
Here’s another article of interest to those that want to actually read about bioenergy
http://biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2010/09/22/the-biorefinery-project-of-the-future-part-i-of-a-10-part-series/
Thanks for your interest! I was reading about the timber industry when I came across information about biofuels, and it really got my attention, especially what I read about bio-crude.
that whole pyrolysis process sounds like something that would cost more energy to process the wood than the amount of energy you get from the end product.
i somewhat follow the peak oil discussion, and it really feels like we’re FUCKED so far as energy goes. it seems like there is nothing out there which is as energy dense as petroleum.
i dunno…. maybe some of the massive scale solar stuff will work out, but there’s not a lot out there to make me hopeful about the energy problem.
Wow, just yet another opportunity(excuse) for the timber companies to go on de-foresting such wonderful places such as the Amazon, The southeastern Asian rain forests. I bet India & China are going wild over this. Just like the way palm oil trees are helping to destroy the fragile ecosystems & indigenous peoples of Indonesia. What a hell of a concept, not exactly a new idea in the wonderful that is global capitalism.