Trees damaged in a 2012 forest fire at Kauai's Kokee State Park are to be logged and sent to a biomass plant. The Garden Island reports that the state is "cutting down trees on 300 acres of Kauai forest reserve" which will produce about 15K tons of eucalyptus and pine logs. All of the trees will be sold and sent to a local biomass-to-energy plant and be recycled into Kauai's electricity grid. The logs will account for 17 percent of the plant's production needs for a year and will meet 11 percent of Kauai's energy needs.
The state will receive $300K - $500K from the sale of the trees and plans to reinvest the money into replanting the area damaged in the 2012 forest fire with native and non-invasive plant species.
Biomass is an energy source that is created using organic materials and converting that energy using thermal, chemical, and biochemical methods. Using wood as a source is thought to be much cleaner than some other sources of biomass and produces ash as a waste. The Division of Forestry and Wildlife plans to use the ash to fertilize the new trees being planted.
Below is a diagram of a typical Biomass plant.
