Environmental Civil War over Art
Green Power Could Take on Whole New Meaning
Torrefaction: from this . . .
Have you ever heard of “torrefaction?”
No, it’s not those who supported the former manager of the New York Yankees (see: Joe Torre).
Nor is it the conservative party of Great Britain (see: Tory, David Cameron).
Torrefaction is a newfangled “roasting process” that would allow power companies to use plants instead of coal in what could become a literal example of green power.
And if a group of researchers at the University of Leeds is successful, we may soon see the day where discarded Christmas trees — among other trees and plants — could be turned into heat for your home.
. . . to this. An employee of City Utilities in Springfield, Mo., inspects a sample of the company’s torrefied wood.
As NewScientist reported, the process of torrefaction heats up plant matter in an air-free container, losing only a small fraction of its mass but retaining its capacity to generate heat when burned.
What’s also critical in that process is that those trees and plants — or any biomass – burns clean as a carbon-neutral form of energy, a totally different proposition than the current fossil fuels.
The team from Leeds is currently working with utility and power companies in the U.K. as they continue to experiment and research how the process might work on a larger industrial scale, as well as to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact.