Dead trees as biomass energy might lift economy

Daily Sentinel ^ | 9/25/11 | Gary Harmon

[WOBBLY BOB]

How about dead , marxist ideas? we have no shortage of those.

[PeterPrinciple]

Converting dead lodgepole pine into biomass fuels provides the opportunity to create energy without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Bennett said.

Decomposing dead wood adds mightily to greenhouse gases, so converting the trees to fuel reduces the threat of climate change, Bennett said. It also offers an avenue to energy independence, “a critically important step,” Bennett said.

---

Wells, that sounds good.....................

Do they not teach the carbon cycle in schools anymore?

[JimRed]

Removing it might inconvenience some bug, rat or other vermin...not acceptable! < /EPA response >

[thackney]

Decomposing dead wood adds mightily to greenhouse gases, so converting the trees to fuel reduces the threat of climate change

I support using the wood and don't believe the man-made global warming myth.

That said, burning the wood or letting it decompose is the same release of CO2, just on different time scales.

[EagleUSA]

Trees? No, the lifting needs to start by putting Obama out of a job. Quickly followed by his record-level of Marxist mobsters some call “czars”. Followed by an executive order by the new President basically defunding and neutering Obamacare.

Sell your gold (if you bought it as a profit maker) just before that, and get ready to enjoy some dividend checks from your investments.

Biomass? Forget about it. Think of the upside to America the above will generate.....

[MrB]

I didn’t get from the article whether they intended to use pyrolysis, gasification, or simply burn the wood...

Any of those will produce CO2 as a product when electricity is produced, and therefore will be opposed by the “save the erf” crowd.

[MrB]

So... how much biomass could we get out of 0bama?

[DTogo]

Converting dead lodgepole pine into biomass fuels provides the opportunity to create energy without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Bennett said.

Fossil fuel powered vehicles will be required to go into the forest and bring the fallen trees out for processing.

Energy will be required to process the fallen trees into biomass fuels.

Biomass fuels will then (likely) be combusted to "create energy."

[umgud]

I live in an agricultural area. We have lots of orchards and just about everything else you can think of. We also have a large biomass plant that burns the wood, hulls and other bio media. It seems to make a lot of sense, but I don’t know the economics of it.

[Cicero]

It should not take a huge government grant and subsidies to turn dead trees into “biomass.” Isn’t Evergreen one of those outfits Obama has been funding?

I suggest using private loggers and cutting it up for firewood.

If they want biomass, how about making it from the pine beetles? Or would PETA object?

[q_an_a]

what a crock - there are composting companies all over America and they use trees all the time to make mulch and compost - turing what is needed for restoring and building - not the same as making a fire to heat a boiler. What a waste of money trying to figure out how to move dead trees- for which there are not enough to some place to save the planet.

These same folks don't want the trucker to drive too long and they don't want them ruining the forests with the smelly diesel. What do they want?

[WellyP]

The Lodge pole pines grow straight and die vertically. They make wonderful dimensional wood that doesn't need to be kiln dried. When they get hit killed by the beatles the bugs leave a blue stain on the outer surface of the wood. It makes interesting molding. They also make great fuel for forest fires and one of these days half of the State of Colorado is going to go up in flames because the environazis won't let people/companies clean up the forests.

[RetiredTexasVet]

I don’t think any of the morons who come up with these ideas ever held a real job or took a business course. Even a cursory examination of the costs versus return are so out of whack that only a government bureaucrat would even offer the suggestion. Lets do a quick check of the costs: energy costs to cut the trees down, gather and move them off the mountains (lodge pole pines do not grow in the flatlands), truck them to the mill, chip the trees into small pieces, apply heat to the decomposition process, etc. What you end up with is $8.00 a gallon ethanol. Only a gigantic government subsidy could make it possible.

[colorado tanker]

The Forest Service already has a program for removal of beetle kill trees, but the contractors can't find a market for them. They may end up just burning them.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18542712

Given that this guy was mayor of Aspen, I suppose his solution is have the government subsidize yet another industry the market won't support.

[Mr. Peabody]

How about whale oil?

[Night Hides Not]

How about...(as one prior poster suggested) we cut these dead trees into firewood, and use it as fuel to fire a steam powered turbine to produce electricity?

I was going to say "SHA-ZAAM!", but I'm afraid I'm missing something.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep.

And Dr. Thomas Sowell is going to show up at my front door today and ask me to marry him!! XXOO

[crusty old prospector]

The money to be made is in the grant money to do the study, not in the actual project. Think of all the fossil fuels that would be used to haul dead trees to a plant.

[GeronL]

If it needs subsidized, its not going to “lift the economy”.

Just a tip.