Wood Fuel
Wood is the oldest fuel known to man. Burning wood rather than
fossil fuels can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions responsible
for global climate change.
Wood fuel is carbon dioxide (C02) neutral. It gives off only
as much CO2 when burnt as it stores during its lifetime. In addition,
wood fuel has very low levels of sulphur, a chemical that contributes
to acid rain.
Biomass like wood can be used to produce electricity by direct
combustion or gasification. It includes short rotation coppice
and forestry waste.
Biomass has some attractions as a fuel over some other renewables
since it is not an intermittent resource - it can be supplied
on a continuous basis to fuel base load plants.
Biomass heating is now being used in several of the most innovative
building projects in the UK - for example the Norman Foster designed
greenhouse of the Welsh National Botanic Gardens and the Eden
project in Cornwall.
Energy Crops
Burning coal, oil and gas inevitably produces carbon dioxide,
a key greenhouse gas, as well as other pollutants, including acid
rain related gases.
By contrast, growing and burning energy crops is greenhouse gas
neutral, as long as the re-growth rate balances the use rate,
so that as much carbon dioxide is absorbed as is produced by combustion.
Regularly coppiced plantations will actually absorb more carbon
dioxide than mature trees - since carbon dioxide absorption slows
once a tree has grown.
All the existing fuels will eventually run out, whereas wood
is renewable - it can always be available.
What next?
Growing crops for fuel, particularly wood coppice, offers very
promising developments for the future. Short rotation arable coppicing,
using fast growing willows, is currently seen as an important
source of fuel for electricity generation.
EU Structural funds are targeted at developing energy crops projects
in the accession countries.
The overall process involves several stages - growing over two
or three years, cutting and converting to wood chip, storage and
drying, transport to a power plant for combustion. And the combustion
process can be very efficient, given the development of advanced
co-generation techniques.
UK Renewable Energy Policy
Energy from crops has been recognised as a potential key renewables
market segment in the UK Government's Renewables Policy.
Growing crops for fuel may provide a useful alternative for farmers
at a time when there is a falling demand for traditional produce.
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