Dear Dan, thanks for highlighting some of these issues conserning the States and welcome to the club of the "None Paid Thinking Association" - NPTA..........
There is always need to look at the other side of the coin, espesially when your president comes from a coal producing area. It seems that Hans Christian Andersen`s story about the "Emperor`s New Cloths" never will be outdated.......... The lobbyist business is the fastest growing bussiness in Norway these days, adopted from the US, like the hedgefunds. Otto > From: [email protected] > Sent: 2010-07-26 15:49:41 CEST > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Stoves] New Rules May Cloud the Outlook for Biomass > > In a message dated 7/26/2010 7:09:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > DD : Dan Dimiduk comments > > Dear Cornelio > > The 'big future for biomass in the formal sector power generation sector' > was the idea that wood is renewable so it makes sense to plant and harvest > huge areas as a sort of slow farming of energy. > DD The big businesses always take the easiest, simplest way to profit. In > reality, they are better equipped to handle the more difficult processes, > such as recycling concentrated waste streams. Regulation should focus on > that. Not on limiting the small guys projects. > > > > There are two problems emerging: people object to the entire idea when it > comes to actually planting and harvesting forests in the developed world, > and the energy equation is not perhaps as positive as initially hoped. > DD In the eastern United States, as elsewhere, trees grow weather we plant > them or not. The question is if we want nature to decide what is planted > or if we will decide. Nature tends to favor invasive and short lived species > following clear cutting that destroys the stumps. > Coppicing is cutting with the intent to regrow from the same root/ > stump/ trunk. This practice is the best for many hardwoods as it accelerates > the regrowth tremendously and even produces better timber. On poor soils > such as strip mining sites, selected hardwoods such as locust can outgrow > other trees and rebuild the soil as well. > > > > The idea that forests should not be cut at all is pretty ingrained in the > US > mental space even though the area covered by forests in the East has > increased enormously in my lifetime. That is why the deer population is so > high (and the number of crashes between them and cars). I think Dan D may > have something say about that. > DD All so true, but now the coyote population is exploding to harvest the > deer population explosion. Now we have coyote running in packs, in the > city, even though they are not traditionally pack animals. Remind those who > object to deer harvesting, that venison is better eating than dog meat. > The best use of harvested woods is to first produce timber from the > quality wood. Use the lower quality wood for chipboard (such as OSB) and > then > residues from that operation as biomass fuel. Then recycle the used > demolition lumber into charcoal at the end of it's use cycle. In most areas, > due > to paper recycling, pulpwood is now in oversupply and hardly pays for the > hauling. The former pulpwood stream can be redirected to fuel biomass > combustion. Regulate that! > > > > The biomass potential in the Eastern US is huge but getting it to happen is > not looking good. > DD Is it a co- incidence that a large amount of coal and now natural gas > from shale is produced here? The old guard still controls politics to a large > degree. It is no accident that alternatives that compete with " clean > coal" are finding more difficulty with new regulations than alternatives > that > compete with oil. Isn't Mr. Obama from a coal producing state? I believe > that the carbon cap and trade bill is an end run around the coal producers > political power. > > > > Austria seems to have achieved the right balance - I think they have two > wood fired generating stations now and they are probably the world leaders > in small wood burners, certainly on the research front. I am impressed > anyway. > > In the rest of the world a lot of people want everyone to move away from > wood for all sorts of obvious reasons and I am left wondering if perhaps > processed wood is a best available option for some time to come. There is > increasing interest in what I can call artificial charcoal from processed > biomass as a cheap and non-wood alternative for peri-urban modernizing > areas. > DD Why is it that published trends always favor the usage of fuels with a > large middle man? Is there any studies on the efficiency of a single man > harvesting and utilizing his own fuel from his own land? I just don't see how > > large operations can ever compete with that. Everyone seems to want some > process that requires a store bought devise to make the process more > efficient. How can hauling large amounts of biomass to a single site for > processing > be efficient unless a waste stream is involved? > > > > What do you think?? > DD They don't pay me to think, but I do it anyhow. Maybe that is why I see > the other side of the coin. > > > > Best regards > Crispin > > > > > DD Crispin, I just happened to read a few Stoves E- mails and saw my name > mentioned. I drowning in E-mail from Deepwater Horizon, Unified Command > Center. That's what I get for sending an in idea for capping the gushing > Macondo well, to Transocean 10 days after the rupture. I just sent in an > idea to > airate the Gulf of Mexico in order to replace depleted oxygen. We'll see if > that flys. > > Dan Dimiduk
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