Wood may prove hottest thing in fuel

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 13

Wood may prove hottest thing in fuel

Wood, humanity’s oldest fuel, has a bright future, according to a new study by the Worldwatch Institute. By the end of the century, wood fuel use around the world is likely to increase by at least 50 per cent. “Wood’s potential contribution to the United States energy budget is even more promising,” said Nigel Smith, author of the report. "Wood: ‘An Ancient Fuel with a New Future.” "Wood has recently surpassed nuclear power as a source of energy in the United States and could provide up to one-fifth of the country’s energy by the year 2000.”

Forests cover about onequarter of the earth’s land surface, from the humid tropics to the vast expanses of coniferous and hardwood forests in Canada, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Wood resources are... much more evenly distributed than are natural gas, coal, or petroleum. As a. result, far more countries can turn to it as a significant, renewable source of energy.“Most of the wood burned today is for residential cook-' ing and heating.” said Nigel Smith, a researcher with the international organisation. “Approximately half ■ the. world’s population still uses

wood in this manner. In some, countries, such as Ethiopia. Thailand, .and even oil-rich Nigeria, nine out of 10 families rely on this traditional fuel. For most Third World nations, the higher cost of kerosene and other fuels leaves them little choice but to continue to cook and heat their homes with wood and charcoal. “Of the industrial nations,” he noted, “the United States was one of the last to switch to home heating with fossil fuels, and it is now on the crest of the wave of nations returning to wood. Seven per cent of the homes in the country are now entirely or partly" heated with wood stove's or furnaces, and the proportion is steadily increasing. The trend is particularly apparent in the New England states, where about half the homes rely on wood to meet at least part of. their heating needs.” The use of wood in industry has followed a similar path, according to the study. In the mid-sixties, wood-fired industrial boiler sales represented a percentage of all'boiler sales in the United States; by the midseventies, .they, had climbed to 5 .-per cent of the total. of wood prod-

ucts have literally found energy resources in their factory yards. The United States pulp arid paper industry now provides 50 per cent of its own energy from waste products, while Swedish paper companies obtain 60 per cent of their energy from wood scraps and pulp residue.

To improve the efficiency and the convenience of using wood in industry, machines have been developed that shred trees into matchboxsized chips. Burlington, Vermont, plans to build a 50megawatt wood-chip furnace that will generate electricity for 20,000 city residents. Wood waste is also being bound together into small pellets that can be used directly in coal furnaces. Pellets are denser and drier than wood, chips, so they can be transported economically over great . distances. An added advantage is that their use is virtually pollutionfree. “Wood can also be used to produce methanol, a promising substitute for gasoline ■and diesel fuel,” the author pointed out. “Wood alcohol is clean-burning, creates none of the environmental problems . associated with coal gasification, - and is techno-

logically feasible. Its production is particularly suitable in heavily forested countries lacking their own oil resources. High production costs suggest that methanol is cost-effective once gasoline reaches $3 to $4 a gallon, a price many motorists outside North America are already paying. The United States, Canada. France, and Brazil are refining the technology for producing methanol in preparation for the day. probably before the end of the century, when wood will become an important source of liquid fuel.” "The. economic case for switching to wood gains strength with every increase in the price of oil and natural gas,” he observed. “In the United States, home-owners using heating oil, which is expected to exceed §1.25 a gallon by spring 1981, would be advised to switch to a wood stove if they lived in an area where a cord of wood costs less than $l5O. Large wood-fired boilers are also economical. The Burlington utility expects to generate electricity at a- cost 20 per cent below that’..of : a.

comparable coal-fired plant.” The growing reliance on wood energy is not without environmental hazards, according to the study. Wood fuel exploitation is exceeding the regenerating capacity of forests in many Third World nations, and woodlands are shrinking steadily. Indiscriminate harvesting of fuelwood is having a devastating effect on thousands of plant and animal species in tropical forests.

Atmospheric pollution from wood burning is also of growing concern. In Vail, Colorado, a limit of one wood stove per household has been set for new housing, while wood ■ fires are already banned in London and in South Korean cities in order to reduce air pollution.

“None of these environmental problems are insurmountable,” Smith said. “Small precipitators installed in chimneys can reduce harmful effluents and moreefficient stoves designed for short-lived, intense fires would emit fewer noxious compounds. The -establishment of tree plantations can help reverse the process of

deforestation. In fact, a fivefold increase in treeplantings is needed around the .world just to ease firewood shortages, which are particularly severe in some parts of the Third World. If the world can gear up to this level of planting, wood fuel use could grow even faster than projected.”

There are encouraging signs that public institutions are becoming more aware of the • renewed potential of wood as a fuel, Smith concluded. The World Bank has increased loans for forestry projects tenfold in the last decade.. The United States Forestry Service is now offering free technical assistance to people with woodlots and the Tennessee Valley Authority arranges interestfree loans for individuals who wish to switch from electrical heating to wood stoves, As petroluem supplies dwindle and as the economic and environmental costs of developing coal reserves and producing synthetic fuels become more apparent, more and more countries are likely to see’trees as a wise energy investment.