Banking on biomass

[jpak]

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/03/12/business/bus01.txt

When is a tree more than a tree?

When it’s chopped and chipped into fuel, one Whitefish company has discovered.

Since its beginning in 2001, Western Woodfuels has focused solely on fuels reduction. David Russell and a seasonal employee would thin forest stands on private property. Marketable logs were sent to the mill. Slash would be chipped and left on site or hauled off to create compost and topsoil.

<snip>

Denmark is just one example. Wood-burning boilers — biomass boilers — are widely used throughout the country. In Copenhagen, home to more than 1.1 million people, a single boiler heats the entire city.

<more>

[Radical Activist]

1. A coal plant here claims to use biomass

They throw old seed corn into the coal power plant. I'm not sure what the emission issues are with that.

[northofdenali]

2. The University of Alaska is working on several biomass

programs, especially in Fairbanks. I've got to take off for a while but will post more if I get the chance this evening. Here's a bit of info:

Alternative Energy Programs are part of the Alaska Energy Authority. AEA works in cooperation with 118 independent utilities and encompasses an enormous range of geographic and economic diversity. Alaska biomass fuels include wood, sawmill wastes, fish byproducts, and municipal waste. The state’s groundfish processors produce 8 million gallons of fish oil per year, a potential feedstock for power generation. Currently, AEA is working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory and others to test fish oil blends in diesel generators common throughout the state. The work builds on the success of state-assisted trials at UniSea Inc.’s plant in Unalaska.

http://www.pacificbiomass.org/Default.aspx?tabid=29