Wood Chip Burns

Today I am talking about the exothermic oxidising chemical reaction that we call 'fire' rather than the world-famous Scottish poet whose 250th Birthday we shall be celebrating on Sunday - and the surrounding days.

I was reading an article on the BBC News Site about reducing the carbon emissions associated with heating our homes. Various options are discussed, including improving home insulation, using biomass gas generators, and combined heating and power systems near power stations, and also for large buildings such as hospitals with their own electricity generation capability.

But I was intrigued to see a suggestion that some people are considering using large wood-burning stoves for home heating. When I was at a conference in Gartmore House recently, I noticed that they have switched their heating and hot water system from an oil-fired boiler to a wood-chip furnace (with a 500kW power output!). They receive low-grade logs from the surrounding forestry and have an automated chipper that converts logs into wood-chip and loads it into the furnace wood-chip intake.

There must be many small villages in Scotland that are surrounded by forestry which could adopt this type of system for a community-based central-heating system. A 500kW furnace would easily power a dozen or so houses, perhaps also providing heat for community buildings such as schools, community centres, and even rural churches.

Gartmore were able to justify the cost of conversion by the reduced cost of running the wood-fired system, although they did receive grant-assistance to offset the conversion costs. The Energy Saving Trust were a significant adviser as well as providing funding. And there is a Forestry Commission website promoting wood-fired heating systems.

Such wood-fired systems are probably not very practical for cities and large towns - otherwise I'd be looking into it myself for our own home!