Ithacawoodheat
stimulating local interest in modern space heating with wood

We humans are affecting the global environment by burning enormous quantities of fossil fuels and releasing enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  This practice will not continue much longer.  Over the next few decades, petroleum will become increasingly scarce and expensive and the impact of global warming will become increasingly apparent.

Fortunately, it is relatively easy to keep ourselves warm in the winter without using fossil fuels.  Local forests can sustainably supply an abundance of biomass fuel which can be burned cleanly with modern technologies.  Furthermore, wood is a "carbon neutral" fuel:  the carbon stored in the wood was removed from the atmosphere during tree growth.

Biomass heating is already widely practiced in Europe and in some countries accounts for the majority of energy used for space heating.  Thus, the required technology and know-how is already developed and available.  Sustainability is achieved by actively managing participating forestlands which are harvested on a regular basis for timber and fuel wood. 

Wide acceptance of forest biomass heating hinges on its cost competitiveness with fossil fuel alternatives.  In the current market, forest biomass is very inexpensive; as little as 15% of natural gas and 10% of fuel oil costs for equivalent energy content.  On the other hand, capital spending is required to build the wood fuel supply infrastructure and equip buildings with wood burning appliances.  With low demand, wood biomass prices will stay low and hinder capital investment on the supply side.  With uncertain supply, there will be little investment in wood burning appliances, which will hinder demand growth.  It is not clear whether wood biomass heating will gain popularity without more public awareness and perhaps some incentives.  Clearly, a thorough economic analysis is required.  From a government policy standpoint, attention should be given to the potential economic benefits of local wood fuel production.  These benefits should be considered when incentive decisions are made.

Although heating with woodstoves and cordwood has a long history, the use of chipped or pelleted wood biomass fuel in low emission furnaces is relatively recent.  Traditional cordwood tends to be relatively expensive for a given energy content because its traditional production is labor intensive.   Currently, pellets are also relatively expensive because there are a limited number of the expensive manufacturing facilities in production so transportation costs are also high.  Wood chips are the cheapest form of fuel which can be used in automatically stoked heating systems.  Wood biomass heating costs are best minimized using a coordinated systems approach to the entire process of harvesting, processing, delivering and burning.

Apart from the necessary economic and policy analyses, it is important to familiarize heating suppliers and consumers with the modern wood biomass technology.  To this end, Ithacawoodheat is planning several demonstration projects.  The first project will set up a small woodchip fired boiler system in a publicly accessible building.  The public will be invited to visit the installation, learn about wood biomass heating, and how it might apply to their homes or businesses.  The second project will enlist some forest landowners in a sustainable management and production scheme and then demonstrate the use of modern harvesting and processing equipment in their forests.

New or existing local businesses will eventually enter this market to provide the equipment, installation and  maintenance services, and fuel supply and delivery services.  The mission of Ithacawoodheat is to accelerate this process.



Here is an outline of current and planned Ithacawoodheat activities. 

1)  woodchip biomass heating/sustainable biomass forestry demonstration project atCayuga Nature Center  (NYSERDA grant)

            a)  500 kBTU/hr KWB/Hamont boiler installation and building efficiency improvements

            b)  CNC forest management and biomass crops

            c)  public outreach

2)  forest owner timber and biomass coop project

            a) research and business model development

            b) owner surveys

            c) advertising

            c) phased startup

3)  integrated local biomass energy market project

            a)  shared aggregation and delivery system

            b)  local currency

            c)  charity heating

4)  low cost solid fuel combustion systems project

            a)  fuel handling strategies

            b)  batch fired combustor with heat storage

            c)  fast start compact powdered fuel combustor prototype

            d)  combustion control systems

            e)  insitu residential testing

            f)  equipment vendor consultation

            g) local equipment manufacture



There is a wealth of related information available on the Web. The links below give a sampling.

http://www.biomasscenter.org/                       Biomass Energy Resource Center
http://www.alternativefuelboilers.com/           NY manufacturer of quality woodboilers
http://www.masswoodlands.coop/                 Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative
http://www.cdi.coop/                                        Cooperative Development Institute
http://www.bioheat.info/                                   EU infomation biomass spaceheating clearinghouse
http://www.blt.josephinum.at/                          extensive emissions testing reports (in German)
http://www.kwb.at/en/                                      Austrian biomass boiler manufacturer
http://www.ala-talkkari.fi/                                 Finnish biomass boiler manufacturer
http://www.terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/      information on biochar for soil improvement and carbon sequestration
http://www.woodgas.com/                              information on biomass gasification

These  are handouts from talk given November 29, 2007

http://www.Ithacawoodheat.org/BiomassCombustionBasics.pdf
http://www.Ithacawoodheat.org/SustainableForestCoop.pdf

Forest owners survey form:

http://www.Ithacawoodheat.org/nyfoacoopsurvey.htm


I wish to thank all those who have contributed their time, thoughts, and efforts thus far and welcome participation by anyone with an interest in our goals.  Ithaca is well known for it's global outlook and local involvement. I hope that spirit will manifest itself as our projects move forward. 

Tony Nekut
anekut@vectormagnetics.com
tony@ithacawoodheat.org