Gasification- If you see Sid , tell him.

There are a number of features which set modern wood burning (MWB) boilers apart from their more traditional stove or furnace counterparts.

One key aspect of all MWB boilers is gasification, a clever way of burning waste gasses from wood making it about 70% more efficient and a cracking word to remember for Scrabble.

Gasification is, in its simplest form a means of converting the heat energy stored in wood into a gas which can then be burnt. The technology is not new. During World War II, Million’s of vehicles (over 1million in Europe alone) ran on wood. I knew nothing about this before I started today’s blog and I hope you will forgive me if I diverge from boilers to cars for a moment

Wood gasification is a pretty efficient way to power vehicles. Modern research is showing figures of around one pound of wood (say an average sized bit of firewood) per mile. Limiting factors are wood tank size and the need to reload the boiler. Efficiency levels with modern wood fuelled cars are easily comparable to electric cars and in some cases, petrol ones.

It seems crazy, given the sustainability of forest cycles and wood (and the fact that we cannot eat it), that in Brazil vital rainforests are being cleared to plant a food crop (sugar cane) for conversion to Ethanol when wood could do the same thing so very simply.

Land that functions as the planets lungs is cleared to grow food that is then turned into fuel. The soil is nutrient poor in cleared rainforest land so will only grow the crop for a short time, hence more rainforest destruction etc- (a cycle of destruction).

This Ethanol business is, by the way being seen as an example of sustainable fuel production.(cue – silent scream and deep breath)

You can go around the world with a saw and an axe (John Dutch)

(John has presumably not passed through a UK airport recently)

This diagram shows how gasification works in MWB’s

To quote from GWI fact-sheet 2

"When wood is burnt with a natural (upwards) flame, the wood burns quite fast and waste gases from it go up the chimney, as is the case with an open fire. An open fire is about 30 % efficient so about 70 % of potential heat is wasted".

Wood gasification uses a downward burning flame and a tightly controlled air flow to smoulder the wood. The waste gases produced, (about 70% of the total heat values of the fuel) are then burnt. This has numerous advantages in terms of fuel efficiency (often 90%+) less emissions and ash, a long life for the firebox and longer re-fuelling periods”. Creosote build up on flues and sooting  of glass panels is also much reduced.

In short if you want to burn wood- gasify it. If you do anything else, you are just blowing hot gas out of your chimney!

The Hazel Stigma (in focus)

Talented Glenlyon photographer Colin Wilson has sent us a picture showing the colours of the stigma or flower of the Hazel bud . As can be seen Colin has no problem focusing in on hazels and we can therefore see the flower in all its glory.
Looking at it we can perhaps ponder both the earlier question of the Dulux colour-match and indeed, assuming they could match it we can also wonder at the possible joys that may await one who has the rooms of their house painted hazel vermilion.
Thank you for the excellent picture Colin.

That groovy kachelofen Scene

I have a lot to do during this feasibility study. One key to success will be to keep it simple. Each area of research broken down and looked at in small manageable components all leading to a greater sum of knowledge. Alongside research into the practicalities of the scheme, I must also communicate the idea to the glen community in a realistic way, providing enough information to people that they can really understand what they are looking at.
One way to do this through fact-sheets on specific topics; brief introductions to concepts related to the project that hopefully provide a basic understanding of the subject. To date there have been 2 fact-sheets, one on the RHI and the other on modern wood burning technology (both will be available on the website). There are things about this topic that need particular mention and I will be focusing on this for a little while.
In the meantime however- lets step back to some really basic and very cool heating systems, the Kachelofen or Ceramic Stove.
That's one there with the knobbly bits on. They are obviously a way in which one can express one's own style and taste.
As you can see for fans of the 70's European tile scene, there could be a lot of pleasure in typing Kachelofen into Google images. This next image however resembles a more typical Kachelofen as a warmed communal seating area.
Kachelofen's are large thermal masses that warm rooms and houses in an efficient and gentle way. A slow burning fire is lit in the kachelofen, and a clever use of flue pipes allows the kachelofen to warm up (never to hot too touch) and be a general heat source, radiating heat out. I suppose an equivalent comparison is an AGA or Rayburn and the way they heat the kitchen. kachelofen, however can be situated centrally, or for a specific purpose.
They burn very little wood, staying warm for a long time. Larger systems can have ducting that distributes warm air around the house. Modern adaptations include integrated heat exchangers for underfloor heating, radiators or hot water.
They really are quite fascinating for the range of designs www.fauser-ofenbau.de and www.prometheus-kachelofen.eu are good sites for contemporary styles.
This Kachelofen also has a Pizza oven and can heat pans and that all important kettle.

The hazel Catkin- Precursor of Spring

A common topic at this time of year is the advent of Spring. Birds, squirrels, field mice, frogs and insects can not only be seen again, but can be seen to be busy. The grass is slowly starting to grow, bulbs are sprouting and for the birches the sap is rising. Its tempting to believe that spring is here, and that soon the leaves will be out. That may be the case in some parts of the UK, but 15 years in Glenlyon have taught me that we will be waiting a while yet.
In the meantime we have a beautiful sylvan green precursor, the Hazel catkin, a important source of food for emerging butterflies and a tricky thing to photograph with a digital camera and a bit of a breeze.
The catkins hang like silk worms or similar, slightly ethereal and very fresh looking against the wintered vegetation. Close up they appear random. From further they are a shifting cloud of green.
These catkins are sometimes eaten by birds as well as insects and combined with the nuts that will be produced later in the year make hazel one of our most important food trees for wildlife. Deer also love to ravage hazel bushes, eating bark, shoots and buds and it can often be this that causes so many hazel to coppice naturally.
So, while we wait for the green of spring to eventually wind its way up the glen, take a look at these hazel catkins. If you look really closely at some point you will the tiny little female pollen receptors open. Their scarlet red colour is very special and vivid, the kind of colour you suspect Dulux will not be featuring on their-colour matching paint adverts anytime soon.

A logo design from a local artist.

This is the logo design for GWI from talented local artist. Ashley Dudley Smith. Ashley and I have worked together on this design for some time, taking it from a fledgling idea of a symbol to represent the aspirations and sustainable ethos of GWI. When I say worked together, I mean that I said to Ashley " We want something that represents the glen, warm houses, wood, simplicity and renewable sustainable cycles, also employment, community and....... Ashley looked at me and took a deep breath.

Some time later we worked through sample designs. We realised that it is difficult to have conifers and broadleaves in your logo without looking like the Forestry Commission or a similar forestry body. We observed how stylised trees, framed in a circle look like the RKO Radio mast on full broadcast mode. We also saw that the roofs of cottages made to look like mountains (representing the glen) did not really look like either.

Anyway Ashley worked on and has produced this encapsulation of the ideas of GWI. Like many of Ashley's designs, you can see more in it, the longer you look. The circle represents sustainability, and the unbroken cycle of fuelwood that thinnings and coppice can provide, while the tree, intrinsically links to nature and woodland, wood use, firewood and heat. The tree meanwhile, seems to bear the burden of the house (its environmental footprint perhaps) without strain. The chimney has no smoke emerging because with efficient modern woodburners, there pretty much is no smoke .
Well done Ashley!

Great News. We have been successful in our application for some hazel trees to plant as a coppice resource in Glenlyon. Victor Clements who works for Scottish Native Woods in Aberfeldy helped us to get the trees, tubes and stakes from E- Forests- Good stuff Victor. Thank You.
The 300 hazels (with tubes and Stakes) are coming to us around the end of the month and will be planted in April. The planting should be a fun day as both Glenlyon Primary School and members of the local community work together to create a heat resource for the future, as well as a pleasant habitat corridor and potential source of food for insects, birds squirrels and humans.

Here be Cable

There is an interesting symbolism here also. Loch Archie, the planting site currently has space for more trees, due to an underground power cable having recently been buried along the top edge of the site. The cable is to take renewable energy from the new hydro schemes in Glenlyon to the outside world. We will therefore be creating (planting) one new renewable source of energy (heat from coppice wood) over another renewable source of energy (hydro).

Please note: To comply with current forestry guidelines concerning photography, this image features a dog.

Coppice Experiment Number One

I am interested in reviving coppicing as a sustainable way of creating a source of firewood. Areas of coppice can also be very beneficial to wildlife. This experiment features a Sycamore (not a species we will be planting) which had last been coppiced or cut back about 20 years ago.
Following a small felling operation we had 2 tons of good firewood to dry out for next year. If we let this sycamore grow back we could probably harvest more firewood from it in about 10 years.

Those Hayrick like wood drying stacks

This is one of the ways in which people in the Austrian Upper Tyrol dry their firewood. I find these shapes pleasing to the eye.

Public Meeting Thursday 11th march

The Church at Innerwick in Glenlyon was the location for our public meeting. Its a really nice building, very simple with clean lines, but not plain at all. A large stained glass window provides a colourful backdrop as Fiona opens the meeting.
This meeting was initially to be held on the 25th of February, but the snow came hard that day across Perthshire and as the glen road remained unploughed, it seemed prudent to reschedule .
Around twenty people have come and we have received a further fifteen apologies. Its a good turnout, when your total population (probably) does not exceed 100. Everyone seems in a good mood, and pleasingly for me representatives of many of the various glen social strata are present.
Bernd Pinamonti of Thermotec is going to work with GWI throughout the project as a wood fuelled heating systems advisor. He has prepared 2 powerpoint presentations. The first one is about cultural and practical aspects of using wood as a fuel . Bernd talked about wood burning culture in the Upper Tyrol region of Austria, and showed pictures of a landscape that looked just like the glen, but with different houses and much less access for fuel deliveries in the winter months. In the Upper Tyrol wood burning is way of life and we saw some examples of this and of how people dry and prepare wood. Bernd's presentation described the wood fuel preparation process from forest to fire, with some great pictures of log (hay rick shaped) piles of wood drying

I spoke briefly on the proposed renewable Heating initiative (RHI) which will pay people about £270 for every ton of wood they burn ( average house, dry wood, burnt in an MCIS accredited boiler, etc). I also mentioned the overlap period that we are currently in whereby one can benefit from both the current 30% installation cost grant (old scheme) and the RHI one (new scheme).

Bernd then gave his second presentation which was about modern Woodburning technology, Logboilers and (wood) chip boilers were described in detail. The wood boilers that have been developed over recent years really are very impressive, with numerous self cleaning or self firing features.
Costs and site implications were also considered alongside some very illuminating tables on comparative fuel use and value. These presentations will be detailed by GWI at a future point.
There was a questions and answers session at the end and people asked some good questions, ones that showed understanding of the topic which was really good.
When the meeting is over we come out into a velvety black night full of stars, shining very brightly.

There will be a Public meeting on Thursday the 11^th of March in Innerwick Church, Glen Lyon at 7pm. This is the first real chance for the community to get together and discuss the study and plans for the future. We will also be handing out surveys in order to gather information on how residents are currently heating their homes and to assess the potential for people to take up locally sourced wood fuel.

 I’m really excited about the evening, and in-particular our guest speaker Bernd Pilamonti of Thermotech Ecosystems Ltd. Bernd grew up in the Alps and has vast experience of wood burning, from a culture where heating with wood is the norm. He will be talking about wood burning cultures around the world and will introduce us to some of the state of the art wood burning stoves that are currently on the market.

 I’ll also be talking about the renewable heating incentive - a government proposal to pay people to burn wood that could transform how we all heat our homes. Hope to see you at the meeting on Thursday but if you can’t make it I’ll keep you updated on this blog. 

I’m Tom Beels, the newly appointed facilitator for the Glen Lyon Woodfuel Initiative, which was awarded a grant earlier this year by the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). My role is to see whether it is feasible for the community in Glen Lyon to reduce its dependence on oil as a main heating source, by burning some of the low value timber that surrounds us. It is a subject that is close to my heart, having been lucky enough to work in forestry in Glen Lyon for the past fifteen years.

Glen Lyon, in Highland Perthshire, is a remote community of around 90 residents, strung along 22 miles of single-track road. As well as being one of the most beautiful areas in Scotland it is also heavily wooded. The recent spike in oil prices saw many of the people living here having to pay crippling bills to heat their houses. It is hoped that by reducing reliance on fossil fuels this initiative will help make life in this area more affordable. 

The initiative is also aimed at reducing the community’s carbon footprint and encouraging native woodlands in the area. Glen Lyon has recently been found to have some of the most intact woodland habitats in Scotland. By re-introducing traditional management techniques, such as coppicing, we hope to enhance and complement the wildlife around us.

As you can probably imagine this means that I’ll be very busy over the next few months. We have got to work out: 

• What is the demand for wood fuel in the Glen
• How big the woodland resource is here and how much can be extracted sustainably
• The variety of wood fuel heating systems available and which would suit people best
• How to harvest, extract, process and transport the wood from forest to fireplace, using as little carbon as possible throughout
• How to create as much local employment as possible from the initiative

I’m writing this blog because I think that similar initiatives could well be started throughout Scotland. There are a lot of remote communities out there, struggling to pay expensive fossil fuels bills with low value forestry all around them. We want to share our experience of using our local resources with others along the way.