The wood, source of energy

When it comes to the wood's energy, the most common image for anyone is the one of a fireplace ; therefore, there are many other energy-related applications for the wood, either by producing energy or preserving it. Let's take a quick look upon them.

Heating by burning wood

Nowadays there are many ways to heat with wood by burning it.

• Logs in an open fireplace: the oldest way to heat a home with wood. The open fireplace, however, presents certain disadvantages, in particular the difficulty in managing combustion. The quality of the fire is highly dependent on the type of wood burned.
• Logs in insert: the advantage of using an insert is of course the possibility of better combustion controlling. This improves energy efficiency as well as safety. However, both of these options involve using wood in the form of logs, which requires a certain amount of handling.
• The wood chip boiler (or stove): requiring a slightly more complex installation, including a storage silo, the wood chip boiler makes it possible to optimize the wood combustion as much as possible by regulating both the combustion and the supply of wood, while allowing automated feeding. It offers ease of use and limits the number of handling operations. However, it is essential to have quality wood chips to ensure optimal operation.
• Pellet boiler or stove: Standard in size, pellets made from compressed sawdust offer a higher energy density than wood chips, for the same ease of use as a wood chip boiler. However, it should be noted that they are significantly more expensive due to the industrial process of manufacturing pellets, but also that their final energy balance is less good for the same reasons.

Heat production by contact with the fermenting mass

Jean Pain has demonstrated the possibility of recovering the heat generated during the fermentation of wood using the Jean PAIN Method. This heat recovery can continue for a very long time, without the initial material (fermented wood chips) being consumed. This technique requires a large quantity of woodchips, but produces both heat AND an organic amendment of great value for soil regeneration. His experiments are detailed in his book "The Methods of Jean PAIN" available as an Ebook on our online shop.

The insulating properties of th wood and their applications

Not only is wood a source of energy that can be used in different ways, it also proves to be an excellent heat insulator. Raw wood used in construction offers less thermal conductivity than concrete or metal and allows the insertion of wood-based insulation into walls: wood fiber (wood wool), or a mixture of wood chips and a lime or cement milk.

Wood is a versatile material par excellence, and its uses are not limited to an energy aspect!

Our chippers guarantee a perfect granulometry for both drying by fermentation and using without any problem in an automatic woodchips boiler.
You can contact us if you're interested and want more information.