For more than 30 years, Arbor Age magazine has been covering new and innovative products, services, technology and research vital to tree care companies, municipal arborists and utility right-of-way maintenance companies
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/560672
6 FALL 2015 ARBOR AGE www.arborage.com CASE STUDY PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MILE HIGH TREE CARE Wood Fire Heating Examining how to maximize the benefits of wood waste BY CHARLIE CARY Steve Elder of Mile High Tree Care in Denver runs his business with zero waste. There is no wood leaving his facility that has not had value added. His goal is to maximize the benefit of every bit of wood that his men handle. A small portion of his cord wood business processes longer logs to heat his maintenance/warehouse facility. For Elder, it just makes sense to use what you already have for winter heating rather than buy fossil fuel. When asked why he thinks more people in the tree care business don't heat with wood, he responded "maybe they don't understand how much it can save them." Elder splits up his wood into three-foot lengths, and leaves the wood in a pile off a conveyor belt for nine months so it can dry. He then brings it into his 12,000-square-foot facility in a dump truck by the cord and stacks it in front of his furnace as needed. Since larger logs burn longer, he prefers 6- to 8-inch-diameter logs. Generally, his men load the firebox full in the morning and full before leaving for the night and intermittently during the day. The furnace burns 24 hours a day at least five days a week. "In the winter we also plow snow, so often we have people around to load the furnace all weekend." When asked about labor required to load the furnace, he responded, "What labor? For the 30 minutes a day it takes to keep the thing going, I am saving about two-thirds of my gas bill." This amounts to a savings of $15,000 to $20,000 per year, so he estimates he will pay for his new "Shop Heater" furnace from Biomass Combustion Systems in just over a year. Charles Thompson, director of the Massachusetts Forest Alliance, points to other benefits from burning locally available wood. "Many people think about the need to save and create local jobs, but don't think about what happens to their dollars when they purchase fuel from other parts of the country or world. Relatively little of the money spent on fossil fuel stays in the local economy. Homegrown and locally produced wood fuel circulates local dollars, and creates a strong local multiplier effect. And if some of that wood comes from the forest, the resulting stand will then increase in value far faster than it otherwise would," said Thompson. Local wood also has a stabilizing impact on a local economy, as the price per cord of wood has been relatively stable compared to the fluctuations in fossil fuel costs. People in the cordwood business can also feel good that they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by recycling carbon. "A tree absorbs as much carbon while it's growing as it releases when it is either burned or biodegrades," said Thompson. "A tree used for fuel means that sequestered fossil carbon can remain in the ground." He is quick to point out that wood should be burned efficiently to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and particulate pollution. Back at Mile High Tree Care, Elder has a clean stack and wants to keep it that way. "It is just good business sense to burn wood efficiently," he said. "I am not really sure why more people in the cordwood business aren't using it to meet their own heating needs." Charlie Cary is principal at Biomass Combustion Systems, Inc. For more information, visit www.biomasscombustion.com.