DECEMBER 2022 | A NOTE FROM JEREMY MORTL
Biomass Offers Solutions When Temperatures Get Low
This week brought heavy snow and icy conditions throughout most of the Midwest. Temperatures have been mostly mild through the beginning of December, but high heating fuel rates are already impacting families and businesses as they try to stay warm this winter.
The average residential home heating oil cost in the Midwest is currently $4.20/ gallon and Propane fuel is $2.27 / gallon. Minnesota is showing the highest residential natural gas rate in the Midwest at $21.09/thousand cf. With these high gaseous fuel rates, biomass heating is a great alternative to traditional heating appliances and a good utilization of our locally sourced natural resources.
Green wood chips are readily available from many forest products companies in the Midwest. Green chips are often residues from forestry logging operations that would otherwise go to waste. 1 ton of green wood chips @ 5000 BTU/lb produces 8MMBTU of energy @ 80% efficiency. That same 1 ton of green wood chips is equivalent to 98 gallons of LPG or 68 gallons of #2 fuel oil. On average, a ton of green wood chips delivered in the Midwest is around $60. This price does fluctuate by region and the distance it needs to be trucked to your site but is far less than the alternative cost of gaseous fuels.
If you have a biomass heating project in mind or know somebody looking for information on a biomass heating project, please reach out to one of the Heating the Midwest team members to see how we can help.
