GAS-L: Re: Torrefied Wood (TW)

[Andrew Heggie <andrew.heggie@dtn.ntl.com>]

On Sat, 29 Apr 2000 09:29:29 EDT, you wrote:



>The roasted wood has a chocolate color and ignites instantly with a match.  I 
>believe the origins come from charcoal making in piles where the outer few 
>pieces haven't gone all the way to charcoal, but are great cooking wood.  
>They are sometimes called "brands". 
>From "brown ends"?
>I became interested in Torrefied wood about 1980 and have followed its 
>fortunes out of the corner of my eye.  (Does anyone know the derivation of 
>"torrified"? -  sounds like vacuumified rather than roastedified.)
>From torrid-> weather so hot and dry as to scorch the land (Chambers
encycyclopedic english dictionary)?
>
>I believe a plant operated for a while in Spain, but the poor economics of 
>all biomass in a period of low oil costs may have shut it down.  
I fear this remains the case, I have demonstrated clean use of biomass
and charcoal making for a couple of years now, commercialisation
remains a problem in the face of cheap fossil fuels. In UK biomass to
fuel or power only runs with vast subsidy in the form of levies on
traditional fuel and avoidance of disposal costs.
AJH
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