VT Public Radio Story on Wood/ Pollution

[pybyr]

FYI, all , and maybe someone can cross-post this to the Hearth Room, too (I have to run in a moment)

this story was on Vermont Public Radio this AM

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/82448/

I think someone should contact VPR to try to get a follow-up rebuttal of the "rest of the story" about things that can be done to use wood in a highly efficient non-polluting way.

My system is still in pieces undergoing assembly, but perhaps someone else - nofo, woodnotoil, or the rest of you in VT could showcase an up and running gasifier+ storage?

I've begun to joke with my friends that I have unwittingly become the Jehovah's Witness of Wood Gasifiers (no offense meant to anyone of any faith) with regard to the incredible promise of this technology, especially right now [and all my frineds just chuckle and nod] but please, 'yall, help me spread the word

 

[Nofossil]

text of my email to VPR this morning:

You had a story on the news this morning about wood heat and some of the environmental issues - especially particulate emissions.

It was a good story, but there's another story that needs to be told.

There is a very impressive technology called 'wood gasification' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator) which involves heating and partially burning wood to drive off combustible gases. These gases can be used to drive internal combustion engines, or for any other purpose where flammable gas would be useful.

For wood gasification heating systems, the flammable gases are burned in a secondary combustion chamber at very high temperatures. This approach produces virtually no smoke, odor, or fine particulate emissions.

This technology is widely used in industrial settings as well as schools, and is also widely used in residential heating systems in Europe. It has been slow to make it to the US residential market for a variety of reasons, not least because few people are aware of it.

Vermont, not surprisingly, is at or at least near the forefront. Chiptec (http://www.chiptec.com/) is a manufacturer of small to medium scale wood gasification boilers - the size used in schools, for instance. There are several of them in the area, and they'd make an interesting story all by themselves.

On the residential front, I personally installed a wood gasification boiler three years ago. I documented my journey and the things I learned on a web site (http://www.nofossil.org) that I created for the purpose. I've been active in the wood gasification community and I know of several other residential installations, many more photogenic than mine.

These systems are clean, quiet, and unobtrusive. There's no wood smoke or ashes in the living space, and house temperatures are controlled by thermostats just as with traditional systems. Most have heat storage so that the house stays warm between fires (sometimes for days). Most have automatic backup (oil or gas) for times when the wood boiler isn't operating.

In my humble opinion, an interesting approach to heating with wood that too few people know about.

If you are interested, I would be glad to help line up sources and resources.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

VPR's programming and political agenda are a waste of airwaves, in my humble opinion.

 

[Nofossil]

VPR's programming and political agenda are a waste of airwaves, in my humble opinion.

Mine too, but I don't mind attempting to co-opt them to our nefarious purposes.

I sincerely doubt they'll say anything positive about a (gasp) for-profit corporation such as Chiptec, but they might bite at the chance to talk about an under-the-radar movement to install green European technology - fits their worldview.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Chiptec was featured in a PBS television series a few years ago as a progressive Vermont business. I doubt there's an institutional bias against wood heat at VPR, since most of the people who work there probably heat with one in one form or another. There's a temptation on the "news" end to go with sensational stories, i.e., controversial stuff. That's a lot more prevalent on an entertainment network like Fox News, but it's what rules most news rooms, including PBS in most cases.

Anyway, great letter, nofo, and I hope it results in some positive publicity.

 

[Nofossil]

Chiptec was featured in a PBS television series a few years ago as a progressive Vermont business. I doubt there's an institutional bias against wood heat at VPR, since most of the people who work there probably heat with one in one form or another. There's a temptation on the "news" end to go with sensational stories, i.e., controversial stuff. That's a lot more prevalent on an entertainment network like Fox News, but it's what rules most news rooms, including PBS in most cases.

Anyway, great letter, nofo, and I hope it results in some positive publicity.

I don't suspect an institutional bias against wood heat - the piece in question was actually created by New Hampshire Public Radio in any event. I do suspect an institutional bias against for-profit corporations, although I'll postulate a loophole for those that could be termed 'progressive'.

VPR does try to do 'local angle' stories - I've been on news stories with them before. Just hoping to help get the word out there.....

 

[pybyr]

excellent, all around

let's hope that they bite

I don't know of any media outlet that seems unbiased, but then, my mind was distorted by having grown up in a home where the American Rifleman and The Progressive were in my dad's magazine stack next to each other, and I was taught to gather useful information wherever I could find it, but also to always question and test the information and the "spin" behind it

 

[Vtgent49]

This is the OWB debate, I'd guess. From what i've heard it seems that burning 7-9 cords in an OWB to heat an average 2200-2800 sq ft house is a waste, and deserves to be seriously questioned.

OTOH, Chiptec eveolved from the engineers who designed/built the Burlington chip fired gassifier Electricity plant. That's a VPR story all by it's self as this thing runs and runs, year round, and is about 12-14 years old by now? Chips, wet and green, gassified, boiling steam to produce electricity at decent cost, all costs going to local suppliers other thyan their fuel costs to cut/deliver.

Chiptec and others, scaled their big boilers down, to run plants to heat schools. VT state pays 80%(?) of an installation for these, and our local HS just started their's up(Harwood). Interestingly, Chiptec was not low bidder, but I recall the low bidder was 20+% under the estimated that were voted on, and which included the building, etc. I think VT has 20+ of these HS sized systems running now, so valid numbers are available.

I'll be at a renewable energy fair in BTV tomorrow morning. Anyone going?

 

[Redox]

Chiptec's rule! Good counterpoint, nofo!

Chris