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:
In Jamaica, unless you're a girl, you don't ask that.
It's difficult to imagine Treebeard getting it up anyway.
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.
@Bagoh20/
Don't Botox injections to the penis do the same thing? Just sayin'..
Rock, lignin, or scissor-thighs, bagoh20 -- which one wins?
tree cartoon
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.
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....
"Enough insect politics out of you unless you want me to start a tag."
You don't have the guts.
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.
PS it's beginning to appear like someone should pop up an open thread.
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.
Eating wood often leaves toothpicks stuck in your teeth. Now that's what I call irony.
I'll have to try avocado wood, Nick. My favorite fireplace wood is eucalyptus -- it burns like coal and gives lots of heat.
@Cody: My colleagues seem to have at least three "upcoming posts" in the works.
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.
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.
deborah said...
Once I read a piece by some global warming guru, Lovelace, or something.
Lovelace warmed the cockles of many a heartwood.
Say what you will about Sixty.
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.
I'm trying to have a serious convo here.
Two old guys used to come around and collect used oil to burn in their whatevers at their hunt club.
@Sixty: I meant that I dumped the waste oil into the diesel fuel tank to get more milage.
@ 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!).
The original Diesel engine ran on peanut oil.
But the big oil concerns didn't think they could make much money off it.
What about Big Peanuts? Everyone talks about them.
Mr. Peanut hadn't been born yet.
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.
There's nothing funny about flaccid wood.
Ask Titus.
Or Trooper's wife.
@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.
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?
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.
Cody, a coffee house, coffee klatsch, bistro, etc., are open threads.
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.
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.
When I saw your request, I sprang into action :) It was fun after the lengthy Al Jazeera post.
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.
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.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em, E. P.!
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.
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!
No worries, Cody. This is a magazine as far as I'm concerned. We're not all interested in the same topics.
Hardwood is best.
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.
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.
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.
Do you think there's some fire retardant on the UT newspaper?
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.
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.....
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.
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.
Duck eggs...never considered it...till now.
Duck eggs are wonderful, providing you know the ducks and what they were fed.
So there is hope for having truly boneless chicken?
Duck eggs are yokey.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
So there is hope for having truly boneless chicken?
It's harder than you think.
I said I'm trying to have a serious convo here.
I said I'm trying to have a serious convo here.
What about?
Boneless chicken.
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