FAQ Section E FAQ SECTION E Market Related   1 Land Clearing 2 Landfill 3 Forest Service a Fuels Management b Diseased Tree Disposal 4 Wood Products 5 Disaster Clean-up 6 Carcass Disposal QUICK LINKS A Questions on purchasing a machine B Questions on permitting a machine C Questions on operating a machine D Questions on mobility E Market questions Previous Page   E 1 LAND CLEARING How much money do I save, if I replace my chipper with one of your air curtain burners? The economics are quite straight forward. The air curtain burner will reduce the wood waste mass by about 98%, the chipper does NOT reduce the mass, it just repackages it to make it more transportable. Ten tons (20,000 lbs) of wood waste in the air curtain burner ends up as 400 pounds of ash. Ten tons of wood waste in a chipper ends up as ten tons of chips. The purchase price of a chipper is much higher than that of an air curtain burner, and it costs much more to operate a chipper or grinder and to maintain and repair it, than it costs to maintain an air curtain burner. Check out this handy comparison, then contact us so we can help you determine which air curtain burner would be best for your operation. How many acres can I clear with a T-400 or T-350 in a day? In the South of the US, you can clear about an acre in a ten-hour day, which corresponds to burning about 1,000 to 1,200 cubic yards. How do I burn stumps? You an throw whole stumps in the firebox or trench but it is best to split larger stumps.  This will provide more surface area and will result in a hotter and faster burn. Must the fire be totally out at night? Yes, local regulations usually, but not always, require that the fire be out at the end of the burn-day. When handling ashes, it must be assured that possible hot ambers, etc. in the ashes do not start a fire outside the pit or firebox. Our optional ember screen for our fireboxes was designed to help prevent embers from escaping after hours, should any coals be left in the bottom of the fire box. It is placed of the top of the fire box at the end of the work day. What do I do with the ashes? Most of the time the ashes are land applied.  Occasionally,  it may be required that they be manifested out and taken to an approved landfill.  This may be the case for sensitive wetland areas where the ashes, if left behind, could alter the soil pH.  Wood ash can be useful as an additive to potting soil, or it can improve the condition of loamy soil.  As it is alkaline in nature, it is often mixed into landfill groundcover material. How long should the cleared brush dry out before it is burned in a trench burner or fire box? Fresh cut wood waste can be burned as soon as it is cut. There is no requirement for drying. E 2 LANDFILL Back to Index Can I burn mulch and chips in a fire box or earthen pit? No.  Ground or chipped wood waste is too dense to burn. It will smolder and the air curtain will not be able to contain the resulting smoke. Is continuous operation feasible? Yes, for a period of about 24-30 hours, or until the ash level reaches about 3 feet.  It is best to clean out the fire box or pit every morning, however.  Florida usually allows around the clock burning, but only in fireboxes, for hurricane disaster clean-up.  The Los Alamos National Laboratory operated our air curtain burners for many months continuously Mondays through Thursdays, 24 hours a day, as part of its wildfire rehabilitation project after the Cerro Grand Fire in New Mexico a few years ago. E 3a FOREST FUELS MANAGEMENT Back to Index Forest Fire Hazard Reduction Programs include Air Burners Systems for Fuels Reduction Can the fire boxes be operated within a forest environment? Yes.  It is more desirable and practical to use our air curtain burners for slash or fuels reduction than any other method of disposal.  The S-200 Series was specifically designed for use in the deep forest. S-116 at Forest Lakes, Arizona, Urban Wildland Interface Cleanup Site (Operator Certification: January, 2001) What experience does Air Burners have with urban-interface slash clean-up and disposal? Our units are used very successfully for that purpose.  Several fire boxes were actually funded by the USDA's Western States Urban Wildland Interface Grant Program, such as the S-116 pictured here. Federal grant money continues to be available from a variety of programs. What role do your Air Curtain Burners play in wildfire mitigation efforts in the Western States and elsewhere? Air Burners Systems are being employed for forest fuels reduction in an effort to mitigate the dangers of wildfires, especially in the urban-wildland interface areas, often replacing expensive chippers, or working in conjunction with them.  This article on forest fuels reduction by Tom Paolangeli, a free-lance New York writer, provides a nice introduction to this topic.  It also includes a few quite convincing images taken in a Lake Tahoe, California, state forest setting showing one of our S-116 units in action in September, 2001. See also this article by Daniel Simmons on the subject of mechanical slash removal for the Independence Institute. S-327 at Los Alamos National Labs (July 2002) Photo by Kevin N. Roark, Public Affairs, LANL How are Air Burners machines used in post wildfire cleanup operations? Air Burners Systems were employed for that application, for example in New Mexico by Alamos National Laboratory.  See the July 10, 2002 LANL News Bulletin on the Cerra Grande Wildfire Rehab Project. The wood waste was removed from the burned forest areas and taken to a collection site.  Useful wood was given away to the public as firewood, and the waste was burned in our air curtain burners.  As of July 2002, an S-327 is operating around the clock, 24 hours a day for several years until the completion of the project. Volume reduction was officially reported at 99% and throughput at 20 tons per hour.   E 3b BEETLE INFESTED TREES Back to Index Imported pests, such as the Asian Longhorned Beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) in Chicago and New York, the Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle (Tetropium fuscum) in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), or the Spruce Bark Beetle in Alaska, California and Canada, for example, and other beetles, such as the Black Turpentine Beetle in Florida and the Ashbore in Michigan and Ohio, pose a serious threat to our trees and other vegetation. The USDA states that there are currently no known treatments to fight the Asian Longhorned Beetle, for example, or certain similar beetles.  The only sure way of control it is to remove affected trees and burn the refuse.  Have Air Burners systems been employed for such tasks, as they would be the most plausible choice to burn such infested wood? It is true that the patented Air Burners S-Series air curtain burners (ACB's) are the most suitable devices that could be used to help combat the spread of devastating beetles at the locations of infestation. An Air Burners S-327 (formerly S-127) system was used for approximately seven months through January 2001 at the Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) location where thousands of Brown Spruce Beetle infested trees have been burned, in order to assure that all healthy trees have been saved from devastation and the spread of the beetle across the Canadian forests halted. Spruce Trees in Halifax, N.S., Canada Destroyed by Brown Spruce Beetle, (Summer 2000) The Air Burners system attains very high temperatures that assure complete destruction of all organisms, pathogenic and otherwise, yielding a sterile ash. Study endeavors related thereto were carried out first by Fountainhead Engineering in 2001 Chicago and several government entities since, including the UK Government..  Air Burners independent environmental expert who specializes in the proprietary Air Burners, LLC technologies and air curtain incinerator performance technologies in general and in particular regarding air quality issues and regulatory compliance matters, is noted professional engineer, Steve Smallwood of Tallahassee, Florida. Reports indicate that the method of converting beetle infested trees, including trees dying from "Sudden Oak Death Syndrome" in California, to fire wood or mulch, or just chopping them up for land filling has had rather devastating results: entire areas of previously healthy trees or vegetation became infested by that obviously undesirable method, counteracting what little apparent economic gain may have been achieved with tremendous additional costs to the tax payer.  By the way, it is estimated that the Asian Longhorned Beetle alone, if not swiftly and rigorously contained, may cause damages to the US economy well in excess of $100 billion. Advantages of use of Air Burners S-Series to help combat beetle infestations: The Air Burners units' mobility allows quick deployment and re-deployment to troubled sites. Their operation is very cost-effective, and the capital cost relatively quite modest. Large sections of tree trunks can be introduced in one piece, obviating the need for costly chipping and handling and the related danger of releasing and spreading undesirable organisms. No gas or electric power is needed, as the units feed for combustion on the very waste that is to be burned. Operation as close to 100 yards to occupied dwellings is possible with very little smoke menace, and emissions well within applicable EPA limits. Transportation cost are very low and limited to ash removal, once the unit is in place. The residual product, the ash, is sterile and may actually be a beneficial byproduct, a soil enhancer for clay-like soils or potting soil.  Landfill tipping fees are eliminated. This aspect puts the entire procedure in the category of recycling, yielding a residual product for beneficial re-use. Go HERE for more details on the burning of beetle infested trees E 4 WOOD PRODUCT MANUFACTURING Back to Index We manufacture and refurbish wooden pallets and generate a lot of wood waste.  Presently we grind the waste and take it to our local landfill.  Tipping fees and fuel cost make this method very expensive and we spend thousands of dollars every month to get rid of the wood waste.  There must be a better way. Can you help? Many pallet manufacturers use our air curtain fireboxes to eliminate grinding and hauling of wood waste altogether.  Check out this handy comparison of chipping or grinding to air curtain burning, then call us, so we may help you select a suitable firebox model for your operations and start saving money. Can I burn sawdust? No.  It is too light and will be blown around by the air curtain.  Like chips and grindings, saw dust is too dense to support good combustion. E 5 DISASTER CLEAN-UP Back to Index Can I get a fire box at short notice for disaster recovery work, if I pay a premium?  What then would the shortest delivery time be?  Do you keep units in factory inventory? We usually have Models T-400 and S-220 in factory inventory.  If not in inventory, we are able to deliver any fire box in one to two weeks and T-400/T-200 trench burners in one week's time.  Overtime premium may be charged for emergency  rush orders. E 6 ANIMAL CARCASS DISPOSAL Back to Index Foot & Mouth Disease, BSE  (Mad Cow Disease) and CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) Animal Carcass Disposal, Destruction of Prions See also the information and links on carcass disposal under "Disaster Recovery" here: Are Air Burners Systems used in the US under the 2002 Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, moose and elk carcass disposal scheme? Yes, our systems (though not originally designed for such application) are being employed for that purpose.  They also have been used to deal with TB in cattle and Avian Influenza and similar diseases. Are Air Burners Systems used in the UK under the 2001 Foot & Mouth Disease Carcass Disposal Scheme? Yes, Air Burners Systems had been contracted for the recent Foot & Mouth Disease Animal Carcass Disposal Scheme by MAFF (now part of DEFRA) in the UK. These Air Burners models were employed: S-121, S-116, S-111 and T-350. What support is there for using Air Burners systems to dispose of Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD), BSE or CWD affected animal carcasses? Bovine carcass disposal verification testing of an S-321 inside a huge BRE government laboratory in the United Kingdom January/February 2002 There is support for the use of Air Burners Systems for carcass disposal from the USDA, Canadian Authorities, DEFRA (MAFF) (UK) and other government agencies. In January/February 2002 the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA, which now includes MAFF) carried out a study with the United Kingdom Fire and Risk Sciences (FRS) of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to develop techniques for the use of ACB's for the rapid and efficient disposal of animal carcasses.  One of the British Government owned Air Burners S-121 was used for that purpose. For example, the State of Colorado had acquired an Air Burners system for the disposal CWD elk carcasses underway in the Winter of 2001/2002. In the State of Montana, a herd of elks affected with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was successfully destroyed in 2000 by government agencies with one of our Air Curtain Burners and the totally sterile residual ashes land applied. Temperatures in excess of 2,800º F (1,500º C) were officially recorded in Montana, but more importantly, British tests (DEFRA, 2002) show that a steady temperature of 1,000º C ± 50º C can be maintained over a period of many hours, assuring the consistent and economical destruction of prions in BSE/CWD cases (850º C for minimum of 2 seconds sustained in the carcass interior).  All 89 elk carcasses in this three-day Montana endeavor were burned in one day's time span (the first day was needed for project set-up and the third for tear-down). In a practice session conducted by the State of Florida Department of Agriculture in 2004, 11 bovine carcasses were burned in in 10 hours in the an S-220 fire box owned by the State of Florida. As latest scientific reports support the suspicion that prions can remain active and replicate themselves over long periods of time (many years) in the ground at even very low temperatures and quite high temperatures of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, it has become apparent that burying BSE or CWD affected animal carcasses in the ground is believed to be a major mistake contributing most likely to the spread of the BSE disease, for example, in the UK in the eighties and possibly the spread of BSE and especially CWD elsewhere in more recent years. Chemicals are also not always effective in destroying prions and their use for mass carcass disposal may not be practical or feasible, leaving high-temperature incineration as the only viable option at this time.  Air Burners S-Series systems are the most efficient and affordable option.  Moreover, they are portable and require no external energy source, as wood waste (fire wood or coal) is used to assist combustion during carcass incineration.  They can be deployed to the countryside, and they can accommodate whole carcasses as large as a grown horse, making rendering and transport unnecessary.  The residual ash can usually be land applied, as it is rendered sterile. S-217 Bovine carcass disposal setting in Florida (2004) How long does it take to burn a carcass in an Air Curtain Burner, and how are the carcasses prepared for disposal, if at all? Once operating temperatures have been reached (by use of wood waste, fire wood, etc.) a 450 pound (200kg) hog, for example, is typically reduced to ash (teeth, bones and all) in about 15 minutes.  It is not easy to predict the throughput in terms of number of cadavers burned, because many factors affect the time it will take to reduce a carcass, such as fat content, moisture content, firebox or pit temperature, type of wood waste used, etc. Usually, the carcasses are introduced immediately upon euthanasia of the diseased animal (Unless BSE or CWD verification testing is performed on the entire herd which cannot yet be accomplished on animals while alive).  This is minimizing the health risk to humans, as no transport, rendering or any further handling of the diseased carcass is required.  This coupled with the high temperatures assuring prion destruction are the two single most important advantages of the Air Burners systems, setting them aside from all else available. For more information, contact  Air Burners Sales Dept. Previous Page Top of Page