Charred wood-'Green coal' to get a tryout
North Carolina is about to become the nation's test case for what marketers call "green coal" -- wood that has been baked into charcoal.But the option of locally grown fuel is not without challenges and environmental concerns. Still, advocates of the process believe the technology is on the verge of a breakthrough.
The process is not as simple as collecting dead branches from the forest floor. The wood has to be treated in an industrial oven until it turns to charcoal. It remains to be seen if the experimental ovens can mass-produce charred wood of a uniform quality that won't clog power plants sensitively calibrated to burn coal.When burned, wood releases significantly less sulphur and almost no mercury. And wood doesn't add to the atmospheric greenhouse gases that are believed to cause global warming.
Charred wood, a type of biomass, would be a major breakthrough because it can be pulverized into a fine powder for burning in existing power plants, potentially displacing a third of the coal in some plants, advocates say. By blending wood with coal, Progress wouldn't have to build a separate power plant for incinerating wood chips, thus eliminating a multimillion-dollar expense from the green energy equation.
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The process is not as simple as collecting dead branches from the forest floor. The wood has to be treated in an industrial oven until it turns to charcoal. It remains to be seen if the experimental ovens can mass-produce charred wood of a uniform quality that won't clog power plants sensitively calibrated to burn coal.When burned, wood releases significantly less sulphur and almost no mercury. And wood doesn't add to the atmospheric greenhouse gases that are believed to cause global warming.
Charred wood, a type of biomass, would be a major breakthrough because it can be pulverized into a fine powder for burning in existing power plants, potentially displacing a third of the coal in some plants, advocates say. By blending wood with coal, Progress wouldn't have to build a separate power plant for incinerating wood chips, thus eliminating a multimillion-dollar expense from the green energy equation.
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