Don’t Grind it. Don’t Chip it. Don’t Shred it. Don’t Haul it.

Need to dispose of your wood waste? Don’t reach for that wood chipper or grinder just yet!

While chipping or grinding wood is a common way to dispose of wood waste, it isn’t exactly the most effective. And this is without mentioning its potential to cause significant environmental harm.

Instead, consider a portable air curtain incinerator—such as those from Air Burners— to get the job done right away and in a much more eco-friendly manner. Here are some ways air curtain burners are a superior investment for your wood and forest waste disposal needs compared to a wood chipper, grinder, or shredder.

Cost-Efficient, Eco-Friendly On-Site Burning of Forest Waste

An air curtain burner from Air Burners provides a complete solution for disposing of wood waste. The process is simple, the cost-efficiency conserves fuel, and it is environmentally friendly. The first step is to load up the burn chamber with wood waste. Remember, you can feed the air burner practically any kind of wood, including pallets, whole trees, and more. Depending on the model, this burn chamber could be the main unit of the air curtain burner itself (as with our FireBox systems) or an earthen pit that is dug on-site (as with our Trench Burner system). Our product line is vast, and we’re sure you’ll discover that on-site burning of vegetative and wood waste in all forms—trees, limbs, root balls, and land-clearing is more cost-efficient and eco- friendly than open-pit burning, grinding, chipping, shredding, or hauling.

After loading, a fire is lit in the burn chamber to start burning the wood and vegetative waste. The contained nature of the burn allows for higher fire temperatures, so it doesn’t take very long for the waste to reduce to wood ash.

On the other hand, while a wood waste grinder, wood waste shredder, or on-site wood chipper helps you break up your wood and vegetative waste, it doesn't exactly eliminate much waste. Instead, all that you've done is change your large pieces of wood waste into smaller pieces of wood waste. The waste is still there. So, to get rid of it, you'll need to burn it in the open or haul it to the landfill, which means more time —and money. To avoid incurring these extra costs, opting for an all-in-one wood waste disposal solution—such as one of our air curtain burning machines—might be the way to go.

Spend Less Money On Fuel. Eliminate More Wood Waste.

Wood chippers, grinders, and shredders don’t run on air. They’re powered by fuel— and a lot of it.

For example, whole log grinders generally consume 100 gallons of diesel per hour. What’s more, you may need to run your wood waste through the grinder at least twice before the resulting wood chips are small enough to be burned in traditional biomass incinerators. This only increases the amount of fuel you have to feed your grinder, driving up your costs.

The damage to the environment is costly as well. Comparing wood waste grinding to Air Curtain Burning, the CO2 trapped in the waste wood is the same (biogenic CO2), so the CO2 release will be the same between both waste disposal methods. However, the machinery, as indicated above, is significantly different as the burning of Diesel fuels releases highly polluting substances and greenhouse gases into the air. With climate change an increasing concern, such high use of Diesel fuels definitely needs some rethinking.

The best solution for reducing fuel consumption when disposing of wood waste is the simplest; skip the chipping, grinding, shredding, and hauling entirely. Our machines can do this as they accept wood and vegetative waste whole—including trees, limbs, and root balls.

Our machines' mobility means you can bring them on-site anywhere and avoid trucking wood waste to landfills, which consumes more fuel and time.

Eliminates More Wood Waste, For Less

As mentioned, the chipping of wood waste consumes a significant amount of fuel. In the process, polluting substances and greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution and climate change.

But that's not the end of the story. After wood chipping, grinding, or shredding, you may think removing reformatted wood waste through an open burn is okay. But the smoke produced by open burns only further pollutes our air and poses risks to human health.

Alternatively, you can compost the wood chips, which sounds like a greener option until you realize that composting process releases methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of trapping atmospheric heat.

To preserve our environment for generations to come, we need a method of wood and vegetative waste disposal that prevents harmful substances from escaping into the atmosphere. An air curtain burner from Air Burners is the solution.

Our machines, fitted with air curtain technology, trap and reburn smoke particles reducing them to almost nothing. The result is a highly clean burn, with plume opacities below 10% per EPA Method 9 Testing.

• A Fire-Safe Solution to Wildfire Risk Management
• Conserve Fuel—and Forests
• Conserve Fuel—and The Environment
• Managing Forest Waste Reduces Forest Fires
• Reduce Forest Waste. Increase Forest Safety.

After chipping, grinding, or shredding piles of wood waste, you still need to dispose of it. Burning the wood chips in the open may be a convenient option, but open burns are hard to manage—and a single stray flame from an open burn can quickly and easily start a large raging wildfire.

Using one of our air curtain burners can mitigate the potential fire risks that arise from forest waste disposal. Whether the wood waste is burned within the main air curtain burner unit or in an earthen trench, the fire is contained within a confined space to reduce the risk of hot embers escaping.

The Air Burners machine manuals clearly define safe operation protocols, such as the maximum wind speeds the machine can perform, giving operators certainty about using their air curtain burner with minimal fire risk.

Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, California, Australia—and most recently, in Oregon —have grabbed the headlines for endangering human and animal life and destroying property. We can do our part to help prevent wildfires by opting for fire-safe methods of wood waste disposal.

The All-In-One On-Site Wood Waste Eliminator

If you’re considering wood and vegetative waste disposal methods, you have a couple of options. The first is to opt for a wood chipper or grinder. But, as you’ve read, this is an unsatisfactory solution that only helps reduce the size of your wood waste without fully disposing of it.

There are a few different methods to consider for wood and vegetative waste disposal: wood waste grinder, on-site wood chipper, or waste wood shredder. But, as you’ve read, this is an unsatisfactory solution that only helps reduce the size of your wood waste without thoroughly disposing of it.

At the same time, operating a wood waste grinder or chipper consumes a lot of fuel and is a significant contributor to climate change. The open burning of wood chips also poses a high wildfire risk and is the source of substantial black carbon (smoke).

Another option is to invest in an air curtain burner, a complete wood waste elimination solution in and of itself—including whole trees, root balls, and other tree parts. An air curtain burner allows wood waste to burn naturally without any hydrocarbon fuels and in a confined space, eliminating pre-processing costs and making your wood and vegetative waste disposal efforts safer and greener.

These factors make air curtain burners the undisputed winner for effectively and safely disposing of wood, vegetative, and forest waste. At Air Burners, we produce a range of eco-friendly, on-site air curtain burners ready to meet your wood waste disposal needs. Contact us for a quote today to learn more.