Financial and Environmental implications of the Food Bank incorporating the woody biomass as a heating system for their new complex

Abstract

The City of Saskatoon is challenged with large quantities of wood wastes such as demolition wastes, construction wastes, and elm tree trims. It has also been recently found that some of the elm trees in Saskatoon might have been infected with the Dutch elm disease, hence, this would lead to the cutting down of trees. The cutting of the affected elm trees will definitely increase the quantities of wood wastes in Saskatoon. The City of Saskatoon might therefore develop the initiative to develop more landfills, as all wood wastes are usually deposited into the landfills. Landfills are usually not environmental friendly, hence, no one wants a landfill in his backyard. Furthermore, the concerns about climate change is also a pressing issue around the world as individual countries most especially the industrialised countries are looking for means to reduce their carbon foot prints. The two issues discussed above have therefore developed the initiatives for renewable energy sources as an alternative to the burning of fossil fuel to produce energy. One of the common alternatives to burning of fossil fuel is the biomass fuel specifically the woody biomass fuel (wood chips). This project is therefore developed as one of the initiatives to evaluate the feasibility of wood chips as an energy source in Saskatoon.