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>The university’s new plant is a combined heat and power generator... At least it's efficient. Under "bio-mass" did they consider burning local wood? At leas

>The university’s new plant is a combined heat and power generator... At least it's efficient. Under "bio-mass" did they consider burning local wood? At least it would be carbon neutral...

420codebro 8y ago
Burning wood is hardly carbon neutral. It releases a lot of stuff.
AndrewGaspar 8y ago
How is that carbon neutral? Aren't you taking carbon that was otherwise sequestered and burning it?
- ynniv 8y ago
  New trees happen quickly, and remove carbon in the process. New coal not so much.
  - AndrewGaspar 8y ago
    "Carbon neutrality" isn't about preserving known reserves of fossil fuels. It's about net-zero emissions by balancing new carbon emissions with carbon reductions or sequestrations. Regardless, burning a tree is only carbon neutral if you actually plant more trees, and probably a LOT more trees, since the tree you burnt was presumably more mature and it still takes a long time for trees to grow. Moreso, you can achieve carbon neutrality with fossil fuels through the exact same mechanism - burn coal, then plant trees.
    - ynniv 8y ago
      And lots of tree farms do plant new trees, making it neutral. Coal is more carbon-dense, so you need to plant more new trees than already exist and there probably isn't room for them unless you clear a forest first, and then what are you going to do with that wood? Obviously other sources of energy are better than burning wood, but efficiently burning wood is better than burning coal or oil.
freedomben 8y ago
I bet they did, but when I lived up there the EPA was threatening to crack down on the area because so many people burn wood to keep warm. Everybody wants cleaner air, but when it's -50 outside and all you have is wood, and a government office over 4,000 miles away in a completely different environment is looking at charts and handing down sanctions while you're freezing your ass off trying to keep warm to survive, it becomes a sore spot. I'm sure wood was not really an option given federal regulations.

>The university’s new plant is a combined heat and power generator... At least it's efficient. Under "bio-mass" did they consider burning local wood? At least it would be carbon neutral...

420codebro 8y ago

Burning wood is hardly carbon neutral. It releases a lot of stuff.

AndrewGaspar 8y ago

How is that carbon neutral? Aren't you taking carbon that was otherwise sequestered and burning it?

ynniv 8y ago
New trees happen quickly, and remove carbon in the process. New coal not so much.
- AndrewGaspar 8y ago
  "Carbon neutrality" isn't about preserving known reserves of fossil fuels. It's about net-zero emissions by balancing new carbon emissions with carbon reductions or sequestrations. Regardless, burning a tree is only carbon neutral if you actually plant more trees, and probably a LOT more trees, since the tree you burnt was presumably more mature and it still takes a long time for trees to grow. Moreso, you can achieve carbon neutrality with fossil fuels through the exact same mechanism - burn coal, then plant trees.
  - ynniv 8y ago
    And lots of tree farms do plant new trees, making it neutral. Coal is more carbon-dense, so you need to plant more new trees than already exist and there probably isn't room for them unless you clear a forest first, and then what are you going to do with that wood? Obviously other sources of energy are better than burning wood, but efficiently burning wood is better than burning coal or oil.

freedomben 8y ago

I bet they did, but when I lived up there the EPA was threatening to crack down on the area because so many people burn wood to keep warm. Everybody wants cleaner air, but when it's -50 outside and all you have is wood, and a government office over 4,000 miles away in a completely different environment is looking at charts and handing down sanctions while you're freezing your ass off trying to keep warm to survive, it becomes a sore spot. I'm sure wood was not really an option given federal regulations.