Very good piece, very good. I like the art work, too. Two minor points You used the EJ unit as if readers are all familiar with it, but I had to look it up, learned that there are about 1050 J/btu, then realized I have no idea of the units by which to measure world energy conversion and therefore no idea of how 50 EJ from biomass compares to some other energy conversion process, e.g. PV solar electricity in a certain future year. Could you give readers such a comparison?
The question of burning waste forest products from a managed young forest in which every tree felled has a seedling planted by the stump has bugged me for months. Is it C neutral or not? You point out that burning wood waste empties a sink. When I asked this of an expert who was kind enough to reply to the email equivalent of a cold call, he wrote back that it is C-neutral "because the log would eventually have rotted." [and thus given up its CO2 to the air over some years]. From his reply I infer that the only way wood dropped to the ground can be a true long-term sink is when it's permanently underground, becoming soil. Burning forest product waste for fuel can only be seen as C neutral when the forest is managed by the best available methods, which may be more theoretical than real.
Please remind me, Steve, how I can share your excellent blogs with friends who are not subscribers
It's unlikely any forests are "managed" optimally. Whether burning forest product waste can truly be carbon-neutral is more a thought experiment than a real-world consideration, especially when the emissions involved in creating the waste (i.e. felling the trees, de-branching them and transporting the waste to the burn site) are counted. I have shared your blog on twitter and a slack group.
Very good piece, very good. I like the art work, too. Two minor points You used the EJ unit as if readers are all familiar with it, but I had to look it up, learned that there are about 1050 J/btu, then realized I have no idea of the units by which to measure world energy conversion and therefore no idea of how 50 EJ from biomass compares to some other energy conversion process, e.g. PV solar electricity in a certain future year. Could you give readers such a comparison?
The question of burning waste forest products from a managed young forest in which every tree felled has a seedling planted by the stump has bugged me for months. Is it C neutral or not? You point out that burning wood waste empties a sink. When I asked this of an expert who was kind enough to reply to the email equivalent of a cold call, he wrote back that it is C-neutral "because the log would eventually have rotted." [and thus given up its CO2 to the air over some years]. From his reply I infer that the only way wood dropped to the ground can be a true long-term sink is when it's permanently underground, becoming soil. Burning forest product waste for fuel can only be seen as C neutral when the forest is managed by the best available methods, which may be more theoretical than real.
Please remind me, Steve, how I can share your excellent blogs with friends who are not subscribers
Thank you, Steve, for follow-up on EJ.
It's unlikely any forests are "managed" optimally. Whether burning forest product waste can truly be carbon-neutral is more a thought experiment than a real-world consideration, especially when the emissions involved in creating the waste (i.e. felling the trees, de-branching them and transporting the waste to the burn site) are counted. I have shared your blog on twitter and a slack group.