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Tag Archives: wood
European Power plants are burning American forests
Preface. More than half of Europe’s “green” energy comes from burning wood, a lot of it imported from America. Now Denmark would like to import methanol made from pinyon pines and junipers from hundreds of thousands of acres in the … Continue reading
Posted in CO2 and Methane, Deforestation, Wood
Tagged biomass, burning, coal, deforestation, electricity, methanol, pinyon-juniper, wood
4 Comments
Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
Preface: By far the largest renewable energy resource used in Europe is wood. In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts forhalf of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. Although Finland is … Continue reading
Deforestation in the news
Preface. I wrote in “Life after fossil fuels” that as energy declined, it would be hard to cut down distant forests with limited oil supplies. I thought this because even in Britain, so denuded of trees people turned to filthy … Continue reading
Posted in Deforestation, Pollution, Wood
Tagged climate change, collapse, deforestion, global warming, mercury, wildfire, wood
Comments Off on Deforestation in the news
Book Review: The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material & the Construction of Civilization
Preface. This is a book review, mainly with excerpts, of Ennos’s book “The Age of Wood. Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization”. If you know anything about woodworking, you will enjoy the detailed descriptions of how and … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Books, Jobs and Skills, Life After Fossil Fuels, Wood
Tagged evolution, forests, infrastructure, Life After Fossil Fuels, tools, wood
1 Comment
800 scientists: Burning forests for electricity & heat releases more 1.5x more CO2 than coal, 3x more than natural gas
Preface. The 2015 Paris climate change agreement states that burning biomass is carbon neutral. Not true. Over 800 scientists have written the European Parliament to tell them that burning wood for heat or electricity emits 1.5 x more CO2 than … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass, Climate Change, CO2 and Methane, Deforestation
Tagged biodiversity, carbon dioxide, climate change, greenhouse gas, wood
1 Comment
Reforestation can cause rivers to disappear
Preface. We’ll need a lot of forests in the future when wood once again becomes our may source of energy and infrastructure as it was before fossil fuels. But care needs to be taken on where trees are planted. Alice … Continue reading
When wood is again our main energy source, how long will it last?
Preface. Just when civilization is decades from returning to wood as the main energy source (due to peak oil in 2018), climate change is allowing invasive beetles to survive winters and kill trees, with drought and wildfires increasing the damage. … Continue reading
Posted in BioInvasion, Drought & Collapse, Nate Hagens, Where to Be or Not to Be, Wildfire, Wood
Tagged biomass, climate change, fuel, heat, wildfire, wood
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Generating electricity with biomass at utility-scale in California limited to direct combustion in small 50 MW plants
Preface. It’s obviously much easier and more energy efficient to set logs on fire for heat and electricity than to turn them into ethanol. Burning biomass can’t do much to solve our energy crisis. To produce just 10% of … Continue reading
Steam powered farm tractors
Preface. Steam engines weren’t very efficient, 10 to 20% at best, which is why they went away beginning around 1920 when oil-powered engines came along. At the very best steam engines for transportation reached 10 to 20% efficiency. They were … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass-powered Steam Engines
Tagged agriculture, biomass, steam power, tractor, wood
8 Comments
Charcoal for the high heat needed in manufacturing after peak oil
Preface. De Decker (2011) writes: “A large share of energy consumed worldwide is by heat. Cooking, space heating and water heating dominate domestic energy consumption. In the UK, these activities account for 85% of domestic energy use, in Europe for … Continue reading
Posted in Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Biofuels, Wood
Tagged biomass, charcoal, industrial heat, wood
3 Comments