Pressed into service: Biomass bricks now a hot item

Biomass bricks are proving a useful alternative during this winter's firewood shortage. (Harrison Thorp photo)

Brad Moulton of Moulton’s Firewood in Berwick, Maine, said he’s been out of seasoned firewood for about a month.

He’s not alone.

Firewood dealers all over the Seacoast are scrambling to keep up with demand for seasoned firewood for even their regular customers, leaving customers on the spot market to seek heating alternatives like biomass bricks.

Moulton said the problem is firewood dealers have been harvesting enough firewood through the summer to take care of demand for what has become a typical winter, which is not what we’re having this year.

According to the national weather service, this is the coldest winter since 2002. January is normally the coldest month, meteorologists acknowledge, but to have such cold temperatures over such a prolonged period is unusual.

Moulton said because of the bind he’s in now with regard to seasoned product, he’ll be harvesting a lot more wood this summer with the expectation that next winter may be just as harsh as this one.

Firewood Time of Sanford owner James Ricker says he is all out of seasoned wood but does have some part-seasoned product.

He said firewood dealers are caught in the middle with wholesalers jacking the price up due to demand. He said wholesalers are now asking up to $1,550 a tractor-trailer load, up from $1,320 just six months ago.

He also said unusual dampness in the soil is also making it hard for timber harvesters to work in hilly terrain, increasing the pressure on prices to steadily climb.

Meanwhile, other dealers who do have seasoned wood are oftentimes raising the rates and taking advantage of the forces of supply and demand as heating oil and propane also spike.

Pulp mills and power plants that rely on wood for fuel and are willing to pay top dollar also factor into the shortage, both Moulton and Ricker agree.

One alternative some are taking advantage of has been pressed-wood, or biomass, bricks that burn as hot as firewood and can be used in conventional woodstoves unlike wood pellets.

A six-pack of biomass bricks cost a little less than four dollars at Tractor Supply in Rochester. Two six-packs will keep a stove going for close to a day.

Biomass bricks are made of kiln-dried, super-condensed wood chips and sawdust. The bricks can be burned by themselves or with cordwood.

They burn fairly hot, but need a good bed of coals to get them started, so a blend with firewood works well.