Wood pellets have been around for over 40 years, however at the time they were by no means taken seriously as a power source. At that time oil and gas were inexpensive and plentiful. Comparing wood pellets to these power sources was not favourable, as it would need a completely new marketplace of stoves and boilers, and some user repairs was required. To the generation that used coal stoves and boilers only, wood pellets could be seen as a competition. However as gas heating came into the picture, it was ultra low maintenance and could heat the whole house from a small package in the kitchen. Apart from a call from the gas engineer rarely, the owners would not even be aware of the system. Recently though the picture on gas has become less than tempting. Demand for gas and supplies have over recent years become a significant issue. It basically comes down to that who has the gas, and the price they will release it for. Recently disagreements have occurred over this subject, and the supply of gas was halted. So the price of gas if very insecure, and in the long term due to restricted assets the price will only go up. There are therefore a group of reasons why to move away from gas as a home heating fuel. And as you are more than aware there is also the issue of climate change and global warming. Gas is by-product of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and therefore is itself a fossil fuel. Fossil fuels when burnt place additional carbon dioxide into air, this additional CO2 adds to the greenhouse effect. There is therefore a global consensus to move away from fossil fuels, due to the hazardous effects of increasing carbon dioxide levels. Here is where a fuel from 40 years ago in the form of biomass pellets was looked at in a different manor. Wood pellets today are attracting notice from some very large companies, as a way to enter the green power market.
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To obtain fuel from the wood pellets, they are clearly combusted, so why is burning biomass greener than burning fossil fuels? Well, to put it simply biomass is part of the current carbon cycle, so burning wood does not place supplementary carbon into the air. However incineration efficiency is still very imperative, with poor combustion of wood, poisonous gases and particulates are produced which are forms of air pollution.
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This is where using wood pellets is far improved than simply burning wood logs. Due to the high compactness of the pellets a much higher incineration temperature is achieved. A higher burning temperature means less ash is produced, more heat is generated and smoke and particulates is kept to an absolute minimum.
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