Coal has the same BTU to weight as wood charcoal. In many parts of the world where natural gas is not available they deforest valuable trees to provide cooking fuel.

Coal has many negative side effects like mercury. If those plants where to run a blend of charcoal with their coal they would reduce the harmful fallout from the electric power plants in their communities.

If the logistics was available to get pine beetle killed trees turned into charcoal, and then shipped via container back hauls to Asian power plants, then that would enable local distribution of BC charcoal for cooking fuel in an effort to reduce deforestation in third world countries saving many endangered species and making efficiencies of carbon release into the environmental cycle.

IMO that is what carbon trading was supposed to fund, but the politics of insider finance hasn’t found enough profit motive yet to make it work that way.

Time Will Tell

Good luck getting a facilty through the environmental assessement process and public approval in this area. Example: Alterna Bio Carbon facility @ Isle Peire.

Innovation is strangled by rudundant environmental regulation that doesnt allow us to build facilites that are good for the overall economy and environment.

I just identifed the problem… Now do i get a cut of the $700,000?

Carbon trading does nothing except move money between traders. Why do you think the banks would like it. Carbon trading has collapsed around the world and for those that believe plant fertilizer,C02 a trace gas, is a bad thing trading does nothing to reduce it.

Modern coal power plants only emit .5% of the mercury in the air. Forest fires, volcanoes, And yes Chinese coal plants which are not built to world standards.

http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/imaginary_benefits_extensive_harm/

The amount of of charcoal we could supply would not even be able to put a needle into Asian energy requirments.

The world today uses about 500 guads of energy, one quad equals about one coal train 3700 miles long. In 50 to 70 years the world will be upto 3000 quads.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/01/global-energy-use-in-the-21st-century/

What kind of coal?

Whatever happened to tonnes, in this case, as a measurement?

Up to now, a quad is something I ride along a trail. :-)

One Quad equals, It’s about equal to the amount of energy in 45 million tons of coal, or 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 170 million barrels of crude oil.

FP Innovations have been around for years. They have head offices in Vancouver and Montreal. One would think that they would have already figured out what to do with the waste wood, etc;,,

Hmmmmm,

Seamutt the idea as I see it would not be to replace coal, but rather to substitute it as a way of enabling a bulk charcoal market with a logistics network that could replace harmful sources of charcoal where valuable trees like coconut, palm, and tropical forest variety are currently used.

In some places the local environment is utterly devastated to provide cooking charcoal and not a tree can be found impacting air quality, wildlife, rainwater runoff, and the utility of the value other trees could otherwise have.

I think if one was to look at the global picture and the win win scenario that could be created, then in that case maybe tax breaks and spending on carbon offsets to make the economic model work should be looked at. Value to the communities would be created by having people working in the bush to bring hard woods to the plant, or beetle kill trees, or clean up of cut block sites… and further efficiencies could be had throughout the logistics chain.

IMO if forest companies were on board it would be a way for them to spend their own carbon offsets within their own industry supplementing their own operations… and in the process gaining an environmental seal of approval they could use to market themselves as ethical wood.

Time Will Tell

Northman I’ve been watching the Alterna Biocarbon situation and all I can say is its too bad they can’t get their plant going… I think it has so much potential to become a world leader and industry incubator… probably in the wrong location though (Burns Lake to Vanderhoof would be a better location IMO).

It looks to me that Alterna focused to much on selling charcoal as a replacement to coal for Alberta coal plants. Going head to head directly with coal in a province like Alberta isn’t the easiest route to get something like that going. That and I think All-wood is doing well with whole log chip plants, so that’s the focus of their enterprise at this time.

I think if Alterna took the focus of carbon offsets and selling to power plants on South Pacific islands as an enabler for the cooking charcoal market they would have a winning business model.