An interesting read. I wonder if/when/how other governments will address the pm 2.5 issues from residential burning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-51581817
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-51581817
UK’s changing wood and coal sales rules.
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jetsam
Minister of Fire
If they did that here, the headline would be "GUMMINT BANS STOVES" instead of anything the article actually says. We apparently like our info in 144 characters or less and completely fact-free.
That is basically a proposal to try to force some kind of sense into "ambiance" burners. I know that just in my local area, hundreds of cords per year of wet nasty wood get burned, mostly in open fireplaces, by people paying $1000-$2000 a cord (some of those little bags sell for $12). Then they burn more oil to offset the heat loss from the open fireplace. So getting rid of the bags to get rid of the "ambiance" burners is good for everyone, especially the "ambiance" burners. Don't think it'd work though, they'd probably just sidestep it by buying a half cord and putting it in their condo garage or apartment closet or whatever.
A former coworker who was involved with air permitting (still is) had the standard comment "The solution to pollution is dilution". A high emission number out of stack gets dispersed quickly in a rural environment. Unfortunately that is not the case in a more urban environment. It makes far more sense to put in the equivalent of zoning in place where burning is restricted in areas with high housing density but allow it to continue in rural areas. with less housing density. In NH conventional OWBs were restricted to being 300 feet from the nearest adjacent residence. Its not perfect but the dispersion volume of a 300 foot radius "dome" is pretty significant.
The cynic in me is wondering if the wood ban is just a way of directing more wood to Englands big roll of the dice which is the DRAX power station that was converted from coal to wood several years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drax_Power_Station . There is an ongoing problem that the UK is unable to supply enough sustainable wood to run the plants from the UK due to lack of significant forests so a large amount of the wood is shipped in from off shore (southeast US is one supplier and eastern canada another big one) at a high cost. There are some fairly convincing arguments that the btu content in the wood by the time it makes it to DRAX is more than offset by the #6 fuel oil and diesel required to transport it.
The cynic in me is wondering if the wood ban is just a way of directing more wood to Englands big roll of the dice which is the DRAX power station that was converted from coal to wood several years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drax_Power_Station . There is an ongoing problem that the UK is unable to supply enough sustainable wood to run the plants from the UK due to lack of significant forests so a large amount of the wood is shipped in from off shore (southeast US is one supplier and eastern canada another big one) at a high cost. There are some fairly convincing arguments that the btu content in the wood by the time it makes it to DRAX is more than offset by the #6 fuel oil and diesel required to transport it.
