SFGate today ran an article discussing the impacts of tighter regulations regarding the burning of wood in stoves and fireplaces in Bay area homes. Eight Spare the Air days have already been declared by the Bay Area Air Quaility Managment District (BAAQMD) this winter which means that the burning of wood in fireplaces or stoves is illegal in order to recude the amount of particulate matter in the air.
Particulate matter (PM) are very small partciles suspended in the air. PM is classified by diameter into two classes: PM 10 (10 micron diameter) and PM 2.5 (2.5 micron diameter). The particles come from a number of sources including wood burning, diesel engines, tillage of fields, construction and industry. PM is known to have many negative impacts to human health, air clarity, building materials and climate change.
California Senate Bill 656 is driving the push towards greater regulation of particulate matter to reduce the negative impacts. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) developed a list of apropriate control measures to meet SB 656. Each Air Quality Managment District (AQMD) is responsible for implementing control measures based on local conditions.
BAAQMD has a useful webpage that explains the rules and the issues associated with particulate matter.
The burn bans on Spare the Air days include all wood combustion devices including modern EPA certified pellet stoves. PM from the combustion of wood will continue to be a big issue for CARB and AQMDs across the state and is something that may restrict the growth of the domestic pellet stove market in certain areas with poor air quality.
Links:
BAAQMD particulate matter page
CARB list of AQMDs in California
Recently, as I have prepared for various talks at conferences and other gatherings, I have made an effort to compile information on new woody biomass utilization projects in California. It is an interesting exercise to undertake as you might think that due to the financial crisis and unreliable flow of material from public lands that there would be very little activity. However, it appears that we have a number of exciting projects underway in the state. They can be put into three broad categories:
1 – Power plants (electricity generation and in some cases cogeneration)
Investment in power plants is taking place as utilities try to meet California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Additionally energy investors are diversifying their portfolios in order to manage the risk associated with volatile fossil fuel prices and maturing carbon markets.
2 – Densified wood fuel (wood pellets and fire logs)
Densified wood fuels represent a growing market sector throughout the US. Demand for pellets stoves is increasing. There also opportunities in institutional heat systems and in supplying pellets to co-fire in coal power plants (especially in Europe and Asia).
3 – Primary processing (sawmills and other processing)
The main California opportunities for primary processing are in niche chip or shavings markets and in manufacturing post and pole from small diameter logs.
The new projects are summarized in the table, below.
All of these projects are either currently being implemented or will be by 2011. This is not a definitive list but it represents some of the most significant and exciting projects out there. I have more information on most of these projects and I plan to provide more detailed project profiles here in the future – subject of course to the project developers permission.
All of the larger projects are using a variety of feedstock sources (agricultural residues, urban waste, private forest and public forest sources) in order to manage risk. A significant component will come from public lands and of course that component could grow in time.
It is exciting to see projects that could utilize over 1m BDT of woody biomass being implemented throughout California. Watch this space for more information!
Power plant restarts like Blue Lake Power are becoming more common
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