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== Today ==
{{More citations needed
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|date=November 2023|find=sustainble forestry
|talk=Talk:Wood_fuel#Today_sounds_like_yesterday's_tomorrow
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[[Image:Pellet stove.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A [[wood pellet]] stove]]
A [[pellet stove]] is an appliance that burns compressed [[wood pellets|wood or biomass pellets]].
Wood heat continues to be used in areas where firewood is abundant.
The mess of wood, bark, smoke, and ashes is kept outside and the risk of fire is reduced. The boilers are large enough to hold a fire all night and can burn larger pieces of wood, thus less cutting and splitting is required. There is no need to retrofit a chimney in the house. However, outdoor wood boilers emit more wood smoke and associated pollutants than other wood-burning appliances. This is due to design characteristics such as the water-filled jacket surrounding the firebox, which acts to cool the fire and leads to incomplete combustion. Outdoor wood boilers also typically have short stack heights in comparison to other wood-burning appliances, contributing to ambient levels of particulates at ground level. An increasingly popular alternative is the wood gasification boiler, which burns wood at very high efficiencies (85-91%) and can be placed indoors or in an outbuilding.
There are numerous ways to process wood fuel, and wood is still used today for cooking in many places, either in a stove or an open fire. It is also used as a fuel in many industrial processes, including smoking meat and making [[maple syrup]]. As a sustainable energy source, wood fuel also remains viable for generating electricity in areas with easy access to forest products and by-products.
==Measurement of firewood==
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==Environmental impacts==
===Combustion by-products===
[[Image:Firehome3.jpg|thumb|right|[[Fireplace]] and [[chimney]] after a wildfire, [[October 2007 California wildfires|Witch Fire]], [[California]]]]As with any [[fire]], burning wood fuel creates numerous by-products, some of which may be useful (heat and steam), and others that are undesirable, irritating or dangerous.
One by-product of wood burning is [[wood ash]], which in moderate amounts is a [[fertilizer]] (mainly [[potash]]), contributing minerals, but is strongly [[alkaline]] as it contains [[potassium hydroxide]]<ref>{{cite web
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Slow combustion stoves increase efficiency of wood heaters burning logs, but also increase particulate production. Low pollution/slow combustion stoves are a current area of research.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} An alternative approach is to use [[pyrolysis]] to produce several useful biochemical byproducts, and clean burning charcoal, or to burn fuel extremely quickly inside a large thermal mass, such as a masonry heater. This has the effect of allowing the fuel to burn completely without producing particulates while maintaining the efficiency of the system.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}}
In some of the most efficient burners, the temperature of the smoke is
|url = http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition-temperatures-d_171.html
|title = Fuel Ignition Temperatures
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150504022056/http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition-temperatures-d_171.html
|archive-date = 2015-05-04
}}</ref> for igniting carbon monoxide gas). This may
==== Combustion by-product effects on human health ====
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Depending on population density, topography, climatic conditions and combustion equipment used, wood heating may substantially contribute to [[air pollution]], particularly [[particulate]]s. The conditions in which wood is burnt will greatly influence the content of the emission.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} Particulate air pollution can contribute to human health problems and increased hospital admissions for asthma & heart diseases.<ref name="epa2002" />
The technique of compressing wood pulp into pellets or artificial logs can reduce emissions. The combustion is cleaner, and the increased wood density and reduced water content can eliminate some of the transport bulk. The fossil energy consumed in transport is reduced and represents a small fraction of the fossil fuel consumed in producing and distributing heating oil or gas.<ref>Manomet Center for Conservation Science. 2010. Biomass sustainability and Carbon Policy Study: Report to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.[http://www.manomet.org/sites/manomet.org/files/Manomet_Biomass_Report_Full_LoRez.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108120416/http://www.manomet.org/sites/manomet.org/files/Manomet_Biomass_Report_Full_LoRez.pdf |date=2018-01-08 }}</ref>
=== Harvesting operations ===
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===Greenhouse gases===
Wood burning creates more atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> than biodegradation of wood in a forest (in a given period
In an attempt to provide quantitative information about the relative output of CO<sub>2</sub> to produce electricity or domestic heating, the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change ([[Department of Energy and Climate Change|DECC]]) has published a comprehensive model comparing the burning of wood (wood chip) and other fuels, based on 33 scenarios.<ref>{{cite web |title=Biomass Emission and Counterfactual Model |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/394758/beac_2015.xlsm |format=spreadsheet |access-date=25 March 2015}}</ref> The model's output is kilogram of CO<sub>2</sub> produced per The intentional and controlled charring of wood and its incorporation into the soil is an effective method for [[carbon sequestration]] as well as an important technique to improve soil conditions for agriculture, particularly in heavily forested regions. It forms the basis of the rich soils known as [[Terra preta]].
=== Regulation and Legislation ===
The environmental impact of burning wood fuel is debatable. Several cities have moved towards setting standards of use and/or bans of wood burning fireplaces. For example, the city of Montréal, Québec passed a resolution to ban wood fireplace installation in new construction.
implementation of more stringent emission standards for new residential wood heaters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCarthy |first1=James E. |last2=Shouse |first2=Kate C. |title=EPA's Wood Stove / Wood Heater Regulations: Frequently Asked Questions |date=December 18, 2018 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |location=Washington, DC |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43489.pdf |access-date=6 January 2019}}</ref>
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==Usage==
[[File:World Production Of Roundwood By Type.svg|thumb|World production of roundwood by type, comparison of wood fuel to other types]]
Some European countries produce a significant fraction of their electricity needs from wood or wood wastes. In Scandinavian countries the costs of manual labor to process firewood is very high. Therefore, it is common to import firewood from countries with cheap labor and natural resources.{{Citation needed|date=September 2012}} The main exporters to Scandinavia are the [[Baltic countries]] (Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia). In [[Finland]], there is a growing interest in using wood waste as fuel for home and industrial heating, in the form of compacted [[Wood pellets|pellets]].
Many lower- and middle-income countries rely on wood for energy purposes (notably cooking). The largest producers are all in these income groups and have large populations with a high reliance on wood for energy: in 2021, India ranked first with 300 million m''³'' (15 percent of total production), followed by China with 156 million m3 and Brazil with 129 million m''³'' (8 percent and 7 percent of global production).<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc8166en |title=World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023 |date=2023-11-29 |publisher=FAO |isbn=978-92-5-138262-2 |language=en |doi=10.4060/cc8166en}}</ref>
In the United States, wood fuel is the second-leading form of [[renewable energy]] (behind [[hydro-electric]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=Renewables and CO2 Emissions|url=http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/renew_co2.cfm|work=Short-Term Energy Outlook|publisher=US Dept of Energy|access-date=24 December 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108022132/http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/renew_co2.cfm|archive-date=8 January 2012}}</ref>
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=== North America ===
Demand for wood fuel in the [[United States]] is principally driven by residential and commercial heating customers. [[Canada]] was not a major consumer of industrial wood pellets as of 2017, but has relatively aggressive de-carbonization policies and may become a significant consumer of industrial wood pellets by the 2020s.<ref name=":0" />
== Sources ==
{{Free-content attribution
| title = World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023
| author = FAO
| publisher = FAO
| documentURL = https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en
| license statement URL = https://commons.wikimedia.org/whttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Food_and_Agriculture_-_Statistical_Yearbook_2023.pdf
| license = CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
}}
== See also ==
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