With issues like global warming plaguing the world these days, environmentalists are waking up to the use of more environment friendly sources of fuel. One such revolutionary fuel source to be discovered is wood pellets. Here we discuss how these seemingly small sources of energy can actually save the environment!
Carbon neutral source
The way wood pellets work is that they release exactly the same amount of carbon dioxide as what the growing plant would have used. So that means whatever amount of carbon dioxide gets consumed by the growing plant ultimately gets released into the atmosphere when the wood gets burned. This is why this is a very balanced and eco-friendly energy source. There is no excess amount of carbon dioxide that gets emitted while burning this energy source.
Even more carbon savings
As compared to other alternative environment friendly sources of energy such as solar energy and wind power it is the wood pellets which save up the maximum amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Another attraction for this energy source is that one can extract a lot more from a single tree than is possible with other sources. For example as little as 30% of a single tree is used in making wood pellets. The remaining portion is used in making and cutting up wooden planks. From just this 30% of the tree one can manufacture 3 tonnes quantity of wood pellets. These can be sufficient to warm 200 homes for a duration of around a week! That is a lot of energy coming from a single tree!
How it gets made
The wood pellets are made by breaking the wood into sawdust and then drying it up. This sawdust is then forced through die to compress into wood pellets. These pellets then get cooled and then stored in special containers. However the process can be tedious and painstaking as just one single particle of wood will take around 2 hours to get transformed into a pellet. However, every amount of time taken will be worth the effort as this environment friendly source of energy is here to stay and is particularly useful in saving the environment.
Planting new trees
The good thing about wood pellets is that they can always be manufactured as trees can be planted anytime. This is unlike other alternative energy sources like solar energy and wind power which depend on the elements of nature. The wood boilers are also considered to be much cheaper in cost as compared to other eco-friendly sources like wind power. For example wind turbines have been found to be much more expensive than the boilers used for heating wood pellets.
Using up forestry waste
Wood pellets can be very useful in eliminating landfills. There are plenty of forests all across the world and the wasted wood from these can be put to very good use. If such wood is left standing then it can result in the production of methane gas which again damages the environment. Instead if it gets used in the manufacture of wood pellets then we can see some significant advantages. It is in essence almost like recycling waste.
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