Atlas of Waste
Atlas of Waste
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INFONAME:Wood (virgin) fly ash
CATEGORYCATEGORY:Combustion
RADIO_BUTTON_UNCHECKEDSECTOR:Biomass power generation
VOLCANOUK TOTAL:50,400 tonnes (data)
FLAGSITES:39
MAPREGION:Yorkshire and The Humber, North West, North East
WidgetsTYPE:Combustion residue
LabelDESCRIPTION:Fine particle ash from burning wood for power generation, captured from flue gas
PINEWC CODES:

10 01 03

SCIENCETYPICAL COMPOSITION:
SiO238.0%Na2O1.1%
Al2O317.0%Fe2O310.7%
CaO15.5%TiO21.2%
MgO2.2%P2O51.6%
K2O8.5%MnO0.5%
SO33.2%Cl0.2%
  LOI6.3%

(Backhouse et al., 2021)

TENANCYMINEROLOGY:Albite, calcite, lime, quartz (Nurmesniemi et al. 2012)
StreamAPPEARANCE:Powder
LINEAR_SCALEPARTICLE SIZE:<0.063mm
WYSIWYGNOTES: 

Virgin wood and woody biomass form the majority of the UK biomass fuel. 7,492,597 tonnes were utilised in 2019, making up 62% of the total solid biomass fuel used for electricity generation (Ofgem, 2021).

The composition of wood ash varies by species, tree growing conditions, the part of the tree burned, the combustion method and temperature (Siddique, 2008).

By far the biggest source of wood biomass currently used in the UK today is from imported wood pellets. In 2020, 8.9 million tonnes of wood pellets were imported, primarily from the US (DBEIS, 2021), making the UK the largest importer of wood pellets globally, consuming around one third of the global supply (FAO, 2019). The use of these fuels entails significant transport emissions for a fuel that has a relatively low calorific value in comparison to gas or coal and the practice rightly has significant opposition (Brack, Birdsey and Walker, 2021).

VisibilityFURTHER READING:(Siddique, 2008)
(Brack, Birdsey and Walker, 2021)