Wood - the Renewable Fuel

Abstract

Because fossil fuels are being exhausted, wood is being considered once again as a prime fuel resource. It is renewable, has low emission levels, and is available in quantities large enough to reduce our reliance on costly imported fuels and slow down the depletion of natural fuel stocks in this country. Current logging practice leaves about 27 times 10 to the 7th power cubic meters (9.5 billion cubic feet) of wood waste in the forests. This is augmented by wastes generated by forest management techniques, removal of cull or non-commercial trees, and natural disasters (fire, disease, insects, hurricanes). This wood could provide industry with constantly renewable, low sulfur and ash content fuel which would also reduce air pollution emissions. Thus, wood wastes are currently available and will continue to be. They are already being used to some extent by wood processing industries that use direct combustion and pyrolysis for converting the wood into energy. However, their use by other industries is somewhat dependent on the potential user's proximity to the waste reservoir.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA069134

Entities

People

  • Robert Scola

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Pollution
  • Ammunition
  • Calorific Value
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Combustion
  • Efficiency
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Forests
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Fuel Oils
  • Fuels
  • Heat Energy
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Organic Materials
  • Petroleum
  • Plants

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Economics
  • Environmental Engineering.
  • Forest Ecology