[Stoves] Wood pellet subsidy in the UK

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Andrew again

I just saw this ‎on a blog and wondered if you would comment.

‎"As to burning wood pellets – I think some North American readers might be surprised by the UK’s accidentally over generous (what the heck it’s other folks money) “Renewable Heating Incentive” scheme which is going to cost £1 billion unless they can fit the golden subsidy goose with a gastric band.

"$1,60 in subsidy to burn $1 of wood – what could possibly go wrong?"

Is it true that there is a subsidy involved in the wood pellets for fuel story?

I understand that a lot of the pellets are torrefied. Is that true? Any significant percentage involved?

Thanks
Crispin




Dear Andrew

"I imagine smaller fires simply don't reach the temperatures to
burn out the "black carbon" particulates, also because they don't have cyclonic combustors with fans to mix the powdered fuel and air there is less fly ash."

‎I was a bit taken aback by this idea. The lowest PM I have measured with wood pellets as a fuel definitely didn't have a fan. Huh.

I tell you what: this coming year I will have a crack at burning pellets in a crossdraft gasifier fashion and see if it is possible to get a good burn without a fan. My perception/ idea is that the BC is not always 'burned out' but is not formed in the first place if the gasification process is 'good'. To achieve this it is not necessary to create a high energy content gas, but a burnable gas with carbon already divided as much as possible, preferably CO.

The bark retention info is interesting, to think that they think that far ahead is good.

Regards
Crispin
_______________________________________________
Stoves mailing list

to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org

to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org

for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/