SHC METHANOL AND CHARCOAL PROJECT
THE METHANOL AND CHARCOAL PROJECT
- There is a need throughout the Rocky Mountain west to reduce forest fuels. Decades of fire suppression have left much of the forest overcrowded and subject to catastrophic fires. In addition, more and more homes and second homes are being built in these forests. A self-help corporation could benefit several ways from forest rehabilitation work.
- In forest rehabilitation, the material that needs to be removed is the deadfall, brush and small diameter trees. There is currently no use for this material and therefore the timber companies cannot make a profit from the work. The expense of labor to thin overcrowded stands has, so far, limited the work to relatively small test areas.
- If the material to be removed from the forest could be converted to useful products, it would offset the cost of the labor. If you heat wood in the absence of oxygen, you produce two useful products, methanol and charcoal. It should be possible to design a methanol and charcoal cooker that can be hauled to the site by truck. The methanol could be used to run trucks, chain saws, small tractors, loaders, and chippers. The charcoal could be burned to produce electricity.
- A self-help corporation would have the capacity to move a large number of workers into an area. They would cut only that material that needed to be removed to make the forest healthy and haul it to a central location to be cooked. Some of the charcoal would be used on site to run the cooker, generate electricity and produce hot water. The corporation would provide meals and housing on site.
- It may be feasible to haul some of the charcoal and methanol back home and use it to generate electricity and hot water there.
- For this project it would be ideal to have a base in northern Mexico where the corporation raised animals as described in the [ Rural Plan ]. That way, the workers would spend their summers in the mountains and, when it is too cold and snowy to clear brush, spend the winters in a warm climate.
- If the corporation hauled some of the charcoal back to the base and used it to generate electricity, it could also generate hot water as a byproduct. It would then be feasible to run a tourist resort for winter work. Better yet, the corporation could provide facilities for visitors from the United States looking to stay south for the three or four months of winter.
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