Leaf Blower Emissions

[Rushwing19]

So this may be a little outside the box for this forum, but I haven't found a better place to ask the question yet.
I use leaf blowers while doing certain seedings/ ecological work in forests. I've read in several places that leaf blowers emit enormous amounts of carbon (IE. one hour of run time is roughly equal to driving a pick-up from Texas to Alaska etc). Electric blowers are not powerful enough yet and would likely require several charged batteries for each day of work. I'm interested in scaling our work in forests but am concerned about also scaling usage of these polluters. I've been trying to find info on how much different and newer models emit without success. In particular, there are a few 4 cycle models that are bound to be far better. Anyone know where to go to find these stats? The companies themselves don't seem to have or offer this information. Thanks

 

[EatenByLimestone]

There have been studies on 2 cycle vs 4 cycle outboards in regard to fuel efficiency. Maybe even actual emissions too. It's not exactly what you are looking for, but if a tool can do 3x the work as the other using the same amount of fuel, it's pretty obvious which is better for the environment.

A word of warning here: 4 cycle outboards are way heavier than 2 cycle outboards. Dont forget to calculate your stamina carrying the heavier weight . They may compensate for the heavier weight by lowering capacity.

 

[Qvist]

A lot of the newer 2 cycles have stratified scavenging so they burn cleaner than the old ones. As I understand it equipment manufacturers could not keep up with the regs a few years ago and some tried 4 cycles and variations of them. Now the newest engines they have come up with are stratified scavenging and meet regs so most have gone that way and abandoned 4 cycle variation. Not sure what equipment that you have (how old it is) but it may have it.

 

[AlbergSteve]

Couple of stats in this article...

 

[DBoon]

I've read in several places that leaf blowers emit enormous amounts of carbon (IE. one hour of run time is roughly equal to driving a pick-up from Texas to Alaska etc).

Whoever published that ridiculous assertion should probably not be trusted for any information.

Just imagine that the leaf blower holds one gallon of gas in its tank. One gallon of gas burned in the leaf blower emits the same amount of carbon as one gallon of gas held in a pickup truck gas tank.

Dallas, TX to Fairbanks, AK is about 3800 miles. If a pickup truck gets 25 miles per gallon, that is about 160 gallons of gas. So you would have to run that leaf blower an awful lot to have it emit the same amount of carbon as one trip from TX to AK.

 

[semipro]

Whoever published that ridiculous assertion should probably not be trusted for any information.

Just imagine that the leaf blower holds one gallon of gas in its tank. One gallon of gas burned in the leaf blower emits the same amount of carbon as one gallon of gas held in a pickup truck gas tank.

Dallas, TX to Fairbanks, AK is about 3800 miles. If a pickup truck gets 25 miles per gallon, that is about 160 gallons of gas. So you would have to run that leaf blower an awful lot to have it emit the same amount of carbon as one trip from TX to AK.

True. Its based on the breakdown of hydrocarbon molecules.
It sounds like the original statistic related to emissions like HC, NOx, etc. not carbon. Small and other off-road engines are indeed big polluters when compared to on-road equipment but not with respect to carbon.