Dive Brief:

• Air Burners Inc. and ElectraTherm Inc. have created a portable wood waste burner.
• The partnership’s whole log wood burner creates electricity from burning the wood waste, while getting rid of the methane that would naturally come from the wood if it were allowed to decompose in the forest or in a landfill. The PGFireBox is comprised of a Whole Log Wood Waste Air Curtain Burner and an Organic Rankine Cycle Engine.
• The device is promoted as ideal for places where large amounts of wood waste need to be removed, such as where dead trees need to be eliminated to reduce the risk of forest fires.

Dive Insight:

The PGFireBox creators mention the need in some areas for removing trees killed by beetles as a good use for their device, but that just seems to be one use of many.

Since the hydraulic fracturing boom began several years ago, forest land has sometimes been cleared for fracking, and the logs left to rot. This new device might do a lot to eliminate such a practice, while helping the profit margins of drilling companies and benefiting the health of the timber industry.