'Crush' or 'Squeeze' moisture out of firewood

[MichaelAL]

This is probably the 1,000,000th poor idea for a way to quickly dry wood that isn't a kiln, and maybe it's already been considered but I can't find evidence of it. Theoretically, wouldn't it be feasible to squeeze or crush green firewood to get the moisture out of it? Think about wringing out a wet towel/shirt. Something like (literally) driving a steam roller over a single layer of split wood. Obviously this would require some sort of industrial machine, but if you could find a way to quickly dry wood it changes the supply chain math on a big firewood operation... Has anybody ever considered/pursued this idea??

 

[stoveliker]

This is probably the 1,000,000th poor idea for a way to quickly dry wood that isn't a kiln, and maybe it's already been considered but I can't find evidence of it. Theoretically, wouldn't it be feasible to squeeze or crush green firewood to get the moisture out of it? Think about wringing out a wet towel/shirt. Something like (literally) driving a steam roller over a single layer of split wood. Obviously this would require some sort of industrial machine, but if you could find a way to quickly dry wood it changes the supply chain math on a big firewood operation... Has anybody ever considered/pursued this idea??

I would surmise that the binding of water in the wood fibers is too strong for any reasonable mechanical compression to overcome this.

 

[blades]

if you want to go through that kind of process might just as well grind it all up into small chips - in other words, just buy compressed wood blocks. Make your own ( only about $60k to set up a decent machine- just the compression stage). The raw material used for those is also heated to drive off excess moisture as well as the dies being held in a specific heat range - this to keep the lignin in the bondable state. Also applies to pellets. Compressed wood blocks being giant pellets.

 

[clancey]

Could not you put some pieces through a wood grinder like they do when they trim your trees or what they call maybe "mulch" or something and then dry those out by laying them on a drying surface for awhile or something that would get hot like maybe aluminium or something.. Just wondering and MichaelA has a good question at least for me too..mrs clancey

 

[ABMax24]

You'll never get all the water out that way, there wood still be water retained within the cell walls of the wood fibers.

I think a kiln is the fastest way to dry wood, maybe a variation like putting the kiln under vacuum could speed results, but it seems all wood drying requires both heat and time.

There is a small lumber operation up in the Yukon that uses a small site fabricated kiln to dry the lumber, it uses the wood scraps and sawdust from the mill to fuel it. I'm sure something similar could be accomplished for firewood.

 

[blades]

various threads on make shift kilns using plastic wrap or cheap tarps and skids. Sun does most of the work.

 

[xman23]

Freeze drying uses a process called lyophilization to gently freeze the specimen, and extract the water in the form of vapour using a high-pressure vacuum. The vapour collects on a condenser, turns back into ice and is removed. A gradual temperature rise extracts all remaining 'bound' moisture from the specimen.

 

[blades]

Around my parts we call that winter.