Some of the worst forms of energy are due to poverty. Wood is a double offender when a technique of "slash and burn" are used.
This is an example in the USA Appalachian Mountains. Any usable timber will have already been removed. This type of devastation occurs in many places around the globe, including the most egregious in Indonesia. The slash and burn there will remove profitable tropical hardwoods, carry out slash and burn of the remaining ground cover which includes peat. Then the land that is left is turned into a highly inefficient palm forest to harvest palm oil.
The amount of carbon stored in dry wood (click here) is approximately 50% by weight. When burnt, 1 kg of carbon will produce 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Therefore carbon sequestrated in wood products is roughly 1.835 kg CO2e/kg.
When wet wood is burned as see here different emissions takes place including CO2, but, also water.
There are several harmful emissions (click here) to be concerned about with wetwood fire / wildfires; carbon monoxide, different size particulate matter and methance (CH4) as well as CO2. Unless a person is in an environment with nothing but CO2, it is harmless to human life, except, of course as an environmental greenhouse gas.
This is an example in the USA Appalachian Mountains. Any usable timber will have already been removed. This type of devastation occurs in many places around the globe, including the most egregious in Indonesia. The slash and burn there will remove profitable tropical hardwoods, carry out slash and burn of the remaining ground cover which includes peat. Then the land that is left is turned into a highly inefficient palm forest to harvest palm oil.
The amount of carbon stored in dry wood (click here) is approximately 50% by weight. When burnt, 1 kg of carbon will produce 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Therefore carbon sequestrated in wood products is roughly 1.835 kg CO2e/kg.
When wet wood is burned as see here different emissions takes place including CO2, but, also water.
There are several harmful emissions (click here) to be concerned about with wetwood fire / wildfires; carbon monoxide, different size particulate matter and methance (CH4) as well as CO2. Unless a person is in an environment with nothing but CO2, it is harmless to human life, except, of course as an environmental greenhouse gas.
