Replies to post #18567 on General European Strategic Invt's Inc (GESI)

[TraderDuce]

Using wood for energy is an excellent way to reduce greenhouse gases. Unlike fossil fuels, fuels for wood gasifiers are produced from the waste of activities like timber harvesting,sawmill operations and rail road tie disposal.
The carbon released from burning wood is already in the carbon cycle and would decompose and wind up in the atmosphere anyway. In addition, an institutional-scale wood gasifier system is clean and efficient, discharging less than 10 percent of the particulate emissions of the average residential wood stove.

[withlove]

R E S E A R C H : T I E E V A L U A T I O N

Creosote-Treated Ties... An End-Of-Life Tie Evaluation

Please read the whole article...and move on. ~ http://www.rta.org/assets/docs/MarchApril2010/mar%20apr%2010%20creosote%20article.pdf



Recycle Ties for Energy Recovery

Each tie offers approximately 1.4 million BTU (MMBTU) of heat energy. Ties may be used as fuel in a facility designed
specifically to burn ties, in industrial wood fired boilers, in utility boilers cofired with coal, or other solid fuel combustion
systems, such as cement kilns.

With new technology, ties are being used in gasification facilities to produce electric energy or liquid biofuel.

When ties are burned beneficially as fuel, they offset fossil fuel that would otherwise have been used to produce the same energy.

The energy value of one tie is approximately equal to that of 125 pounds of coal.

Since the wood fuel is carbon neutral, for each tie burned for energy recovery, only the creosote portion is considered a fossil fuel that results in the addition of approximately 39 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The carbon dioxide from burning coal of equal energy would be approximately 288 pounds. Thus, each tie used for energy results in a net offset of carbon dioxide emissions of approximately
249 pounds.

Acidifying emissions from burning wood are less than for burning an equivalent amount of coal; thus, use of ties for fuel results in lower net acidifying emissions.

[withlove]

End-Of-Life creosote-Tie Evaluation

Conclusions

Recycling for energy recovery provides clear and significant benefits of conserving fossil fuel resources, reducing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, and reducing emissions that lead to acid precipitation.


The fuel offset gained by recycling creosote-treated ties for energy recovery is 20 times greater than energy recovery from landfill disposal.


Offsets result in a significant decrease in GHG emissions when ties are recycled for energy compared to a slight increase in GHG emissions when landfilled.


If ties are abandoned, no change results to fossil fuel use or acidification and GHG emissions are increased approximately one-third as much as by landfill disposal.


If all ties replaced annually in the U.S., approximately 20 million ties, were recycled for energy, the result would be to offset the GHG and fossil fuel use equivalent to a city of nearly 100,000 people.

http://www.rta.org/assets/docs/MarchApril2010/mar%20apr%2010%20creosote%20article.pdf