Friday, August 23, 2013

Got Wood?


Trees use a rigid natural polymer called lignin* to stand upright against gravity. It's the arboreal analog of cellulose in plants -- the very molecular scaffold on which a plant hangs its inner workings. But lignin interferes with the extraction of sugars from trees for biofuels. A work around solution is to genetically modify certain trees to have less lignin and thus to be less rigid, according to a recent article in Science.


I am not against biofuels per se -- in particular, direct biomass conversion to electricity in power plants seems like an efficient, carbon-neutral idea. The technology exists to capture and recycle the useful minerals sequestered in burned plants and any pre-drying could be done using waste heat.

Other plants and organisms are particularly good at producing biofuel precursors other than sugars -- namely fatty acids -- for example algae.

Image a Dali-esque forest in which all the trees were more or less flaccid.
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*Lignin, from Latin lignum = wood (cf. Italian: legno).

60 comments:

edutcher said...

In Jamaica, unless you're a girl, you don't ask that.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It's difficult to imagine Treebeard getting it up anyway.

bagoh20 said...

Hey guys, I eat about 1 cord of wood each month for the incredible power of lignin. I like red oak mostly. It's amazing what it can do. Did you know that unlike ants, the King termite grows larger after mating and continues to mate with the queen for 45 years? Try it. Your wife will thank you.

virgil xenophon said...

@Bagoh20/

Don't Botox injections to the penis do the same thing? Just sayin'..

chickelit said...

Rock, lignin, or scissor-thighs, bagoh20 -- which one wins?

deborah said...

tree cartoon

chickelit said...

Did you know that unlike ants, the King termite grows larger after mating and continues to mate with the queen for 45 years? Try it. Your wife will thank you.

Enough insect politics out of you unless you want me to start a tag.

Icepick said...

Image a Dali-esque forest in which all the trees were more or less flaccid.

Like an orgy at the all-gay old folks home....

deborah said...

"Enough insect politics out of you unless you want me to start a tag."

You don't have the guts.

Cody Jarrett said...

As you say, Chickster, direct biofuel use--at least where I am--makes a lot more sense.

There are tons of tons of whole tree chips being made and moved every working day. Some are going to paper mills, but most are being burned for energy.

In other parts of the world (Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, places like that) they're really far ahead of us in that regard.

But you burn "waste", using it to generate direct heat, but also using the heat to generate electricity.

There's a university (probably more than one) someplace in the middle west...WI or MI I believe that recently put in a giant biofuel plant, state of the art. They can heat the entire campus as well as produce a large chunk of their electrical needs.

I subscribe to Northern Logger and Timber Processor for fun and business purposes. Biofuels are kind of a big deal in that particular journal.

Cody Jarrett said...

PS it's beginning to appear like someone should pop up an open thread.




ndspinelli said...

When I started have beach bonfires in San Diego I discovered avocado wood. For an eastern and central time zone guy it was a revelation. It burns hot and virtually smokeless. That's all I care about wood. How does it burn in my fireplace or bonfire. When I used to smoke meats, I cared about mesquite, hickory, and fruit wood.

bagoh20 said...

Eating wood often leaves toothpicks stuck in your teeth. Now that's what I call irony.

chickelit said...

I'll have to try avocado wood, Nick. My favorite fireplace wood is eucalyptus -- it burns like coal and gives lots of heat.

chickelit said...

@Cody: My colleagues seem to have at least three "upcoming posts" in the works.

deborah said...

Once I read a piece by some global warming guru, Lovelace, or something.

He said something about all our sequestering needs could be met if farmers buried their left-over plant stuff, after harvesting. I'm guessing not silage, but unusable stuff.

The Dude said...

I take all my wood scraps, chips and dust and burn them in a hollow tree stump.

It's too fucking cold, I want more CO2 in the air.

When I change the oil in my pickup I dump the waste oil in there too - that burns real good.

Makes a lot of smoke, too, which is also good.

chickelit said...

deborah said...
Once I read a piece by some global warming guru, Lovelace, or something.

Lovelace warmed the cockles of many a heartwood.

deborah said...

Say what you will about Sixty.

chickelit said...

When I change the oil in my pickup I dump the waste oil in there too - that burns real good.

I have a diesel and do that too (after filtering). Then I burn the oily filter in the fire pit.

deborah said...

I'm trying to have a serious convo here.

deborah said...

Two old guys used to come around and collect used oil to burn in their whatevers at their hunt club.

chickelit said...

@Sixty: I meant that I dumped the waste oil into the diesel fuel tank to get more milage.

Cody Jarrett said...

@ Chickster: I mentioned it cuz of the foolery in this thread. I think this is a good topic and was hoping for a few serious posts on it before it got taken over. Thought an open thread might give us all a bit of a break (which a few of us look like we need!).

Cody Jarrett said...

The original Diesel engine ran on peanut oil.

But the big oil concerns didn't think they could make much money off it.

The Dude said...

What about Big Peanuts? Everyone talks about them.

Cody Jarrett said...

Mr. Peanut hadn't been born yet.

Icepick said...

I think this is a good topic and was hoping for a few serious posts on it before it got taken over.

You can't talk about a flaccid forest and not expect things to go as they did.

Cody Jarrett said...

There's nothing funny about flaccid wood.

Ask Titus.

Cody Jarrett said...

Or Trooper's wife.

chickelit said...

@Cody: I created a free-for-post but I'm not going to post it unless things get out of hand. Plus open threads are Lem's ball of whacks. Deborah put up two nice topics which deserve more attention. The race war/fire fight going on elsewhere should probably just stay there.

Cody Jarrett said...

Chickie, I don't know what you're trying to say.

I posted on Deb's batman thread. I don't care about algore and aljizz-eera.

I haven't mentioned the race war crap outside of that thread.

So what's the point?

Cody Jarrett said...

Like I already said, I just thought from the way the comments were going it seemed like everyone was ready for an open thread.

But whatever, what do I know.

deborah said...

Cody, a coffee house, coffee klatsch, bistro, etc., are open threads.

Cody Jarrett said...

I suggested the open thread about ten minutes before you put up your Batman Bistro post, Deb.

I'm not sure what The Chicken is doggin' me around about.

The Dude said...

I am sincere - I sawed down a tree in my back yard and I have been trying to burn out the hollow stump using wood scrap, chips, dust and the occasional quart of motor oil.

If I start with a ton of wood and create end products that weigh 100 pounds or so, then 1,900 pounds of wood gets burned. Works for me.

I knew E. P. was not doing any open burning - where he lives the CARB shock troops would haul him away for such behavior.

The irony, of course is, if you don't have a catalytic converter on your chimney, burning wood in a fireplace is no different than an open burn, well, maybe with fewer sparks, which in a tinder dry landscape is an issue.

You can sear the sere until the tinder is tender, or something.

deborah said...

When I saw your request, I sprang into action :) It was fun after the lengthy Al Jazeera post.

deborah said...

I was just teasing, Sixty. I have no problem with wood fires, or you burning out the stump. I used to burn a fair amount of wood myself...a Vermont Castings Federal, large size.
The cumbustor's been broken for years, but it still works well.

chickelit said...

I knew E. P. was not doing any open burning - where he lives the CARB shock troops would haul him away for such behavior.

This is not true. LA county has those kinds of burn laws and perhaps San Diego proper. But not Oceanside.

The Dude said...

Smoke 'em if you got 'em, E. P.!

Cody Jarrett said...

And no offense, Deb, about the Al-Jizz post.

I just can't bring myself to care about anything Algore is involved with in any way.

bagoh20 said...

It's all my fault, but I was just trying to help out the guys here. I bring in a serious suggestion that can improve male/female relations (you know bring more love into the world), and everyone used it to play games. I'm serious: eat wood!

deborah said...

No worries, Cody. This is a magazine as far as I'm concerned. We're not all interested in the same topics.

Anonymous said...

Hardwood is best.

The Dude said...

There was a fireplace at my old house, and during a 3 day power outage during the big ice storm of '02, that kept me warm and alive.

New house - no fireplace, no wood burner. Which reminds me, I should really see about getting one installed before winter gets here. I prefer to capture the BTUs inside the house.

Mitch H. said...

He said something about all our sequestering needs could be met if farmers buried their left-over plant stuff, after harvesting. I'm guessing not silage, but unusable stuff.

As if the "left-over plant stuff" (known in the industry as "crop residue") doesn't have a purpose currently, gah. Farmers are *supposed* to leave that shit on their fields, especially if they farm anything other than zero-slope plots. Significant crop residue is vital for staving off erosion and maintaining a healthy soil microculture, it's almost as important as no-till for long-term agricultural sustainability.

ndspinelli said...

Chick, The couple times I couldn't find avocado I bought eucalyptus, and liked it also. I get my wood from two places in Escondido, both about a mile or so apart. Both woods burn great and start easily. It is the weirdest thing, I tried many times to start fires w/ the SD UT newspaper. The fucking thing won't burn!! It just smolders. However, I now have a reputation as an arsonist. I've worked hundreds of arson cases and there is almost always accelerant. So, I just buy cheap lighter fluid, soak the logs, an swoosh, we got us a bonfire. The kids love it.

ndspinelli said...

Do you think there's some fire retardant on the UT newspaper?

Cody Jarrett said...

So, I just buy cheap lighter fluid, soak the logs, an swoosh, we got us a bonfire. The kids love it.

Sounds like my grandfather. Man would use an entire container of charcoal lighter fluid to start the grill. Sometimes he'd head into a second one if he felt like it--after the fire was burning.

God I loved that man.

Chip Ahoy said...

I just had a flashback.

Scene: drama class, Camp Drake, the school for Momote Village dependents, the instructor told us to act like we sawed down a tree together using one of those old fashion two-man saws, then carry off the invisible tree. It's pretend. It's acting, People, we were honing our craft !

But the guys failed to keep straight and walked off together as if the log they were holding bent and the instructor said, "It looks like a rubber tree." And that's all it took to set off my unstoppable preteen teeters and I could

not

stop

laughing

oh no, you did it, here it comes again Ha ha ha ha ah ah ahha ha ha ha ha ha hahahahahaha.....

deborah said...

Yeah, Sixty, you'd better get on the stick. It's funny to think a house with no means to heat with wood or something :)

Damn good point, Mitch. I shoulda thought of the no-till erosion angle.

The Dude said...

I used to give my wood chips to a woman who raised ducks. Then she would bring me duck eggs - I turned wood chips into the best fried eggs this side of the Cape Fear river.

But then she moved away and the guy who took her flock is, well, not the most assertive type of fellow.

I might have to resort to buying duck eggs. For a cheap guy, that is hurtful. But if you have ever had duck eggs, you understand that some things are worth more than money.

deborah said...

Duck eggs...never considered it...till now.

Cody Jarrett said...

Duck eggs are wonderful, providing you know the ducks and what they were fed.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

So there is hope for having truly boneless chicken?

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Duck eggs are yokey.

chickelit said...

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
So there is hope for having truly boneless chicken?

It's harder than you think.

deborah said...

I said I'm trying to have a serious convo here.

Cody Jarrett said...

I said I'm trying to have a serious convo here.

What about?

deborah said...

Boneless chicken.