How Can Biomass Pellet Mills Save the World?
We as a species have come a very long way since the discovery of fire, or at least the discovery of igniting and control it. In our relatively short time here on this planet, it is amazing to think of everything that has been accomplished, what we have discovered and invented, and how we have progressed. Think of the endless applications that we now utilize fire for. This valuable element that affects our daily lives, whether it is for cooking, heating, or any number of things.
And think of how we have developed alternatives and advancements. We don’t walk into our homes and strike a match for a torch to light the room, we flip a switch and the darkness disappears. Every new discovery and invention was built on something that was discovered or invented before it, and we have the capacity to continue to improve. The wonders of the human mind and capabilities are endless. But what we do not have is endless resources.
Stripping the earth of resources
The existence and growth of the human race over time can be viewed as a single person. In our infancy we discovered how to manipulate fire, how to farm, how to form communities. And then, as a young child, we began to take in and really start to understand everything that we were capable of, and we couldn’t get enough. Like a kid in a candy store, we went crazy for all the things the earth had that we could use to our benefit, for our profit. And that greedy, ignorant phase caused quite a bit of harm to the environment. Now, as a teenager, will we continue to rebel against what we know is right, or start to make better choices?
How a biomass pellet mill can help turn things around
During the Industrial Revolution, it may not have been clear to everyone just how severe the damage we were doing to the planet with our advancements really was. But we know now. And we can do something about it now. However it is as if this collective teenager that we are has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. The greedy and powerful serve as the voice of continued rebellion, while those who have awoken to what we are doing serve as the voice of reason and moral responsibility.
There are better ways to progress. Ways that take care of us and the planet. Implementing more use of biomass pellet mills is one of those ways. A biomass pellet mill uses an array of forest or agricultural residue or waste to create high density pellets that can then be used for fuel. Biomass pellet mills, while capable of processing a number of different materials, often come in the form of a wood pellet making machine. It has been estimated that by 2025, the demand for wood pellets in North America will be somewhere around 5 million metric tons. So there is clearly a continued need for wood pellet mill machines, and focusing on that need instead of sticking to old ways of obtaining fuel could have a significant positive impact on the environment.
How it helps and why we should care
The direct thermal conversion of 3 million tons of wood pellets is equal to nearly 8.5 million barrels of Number 2 fuel oil, which is a home heating oil concentrate. That is 356 million gallons of a limited resource that we could be replacing. And it needs to happen, because at the rate we are stripping the earth of its resources, we are not going to have a home to live on in order to find out what else our amazing minds are capable of. What we are capable of is switching to more environmentally friendly ways of sustaining our way of life.
Over the course of one year, wood pellet exports leaving the United States almost doubled. The world is starting to make the right choices regarding the home we all share. We can fix what we nearly destroyed.