Types of Wood Chips
Wood chips---which, in the past, were frequently found on the floor of a carpenter's shop awaiting a broom---have become a very useful and versatile scrap material. Most uses require them to be burned, but some simply take advantage of their organic properties.
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Features
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Wood chips are not the same as wood pellets, nuggets, blocks or mulch. They are roughly the size of a matchbook (see photo); their uniform size and shape is what makes them ideal natural materials. The most usable wood chips are from hardwood trees such as hickory, maple, oak, walnut, alder, apple, cherry, mulberry, plum, pear and pecan.
Uses
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Wood chips are valued for their ability to sustain steady burning for extended periods of time. This is why they are popular for grilling and smoking meats and for commercial and residential heating. In addition, they are full of nutrients, which makes them popular as mulch and for soil conditioning.
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Grilling and Smoking Meats
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Grilling with wood chips, i.e., cooking meats directly over heat, enables chefs---amateur and professional---to impart unique flavors to different types of meats and fish during the cooking process. Smoke from hickory chips is different from the smoke produced by apple chips, and some restaurateurs make signature dishes with blends of smoke for salmon, pork chops and steaks, for example.
Smoking meats is done indirectly: The meats are at some distance from the burning wood. This allows them to take on the fragrant smoke for a longer time than grilling because the heat is less intense and they cook more slowly.
Heat Source
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Wood chips, which are considered biomass, make excellent fuel for large-scale heating use, for example, at schools and hospitals, if the institution has the proper equipment for a wood-burning furnace system. Suitable-quality wood chips are plentiful. They are obtained from sawmills and lumbering operations, and they are less expensive and produce fewer emissions than conventional heating fuel sources.
Very promising prototypes of wood-chip heating systems for residential use have recently been developed using green woods, which burn cleaner than dry wood. These heating systems are not the same as wood stoves; they are a type of furnace that creates, then distributes, heat throughout the home.
Mulch and Soil Conditioner
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Many gardeners, both professional and amateur, are enthusiastic about using wood chips in their gardening operations. Wood chips make long-lasting and nutritionally beneficial mulch that maintains soil temperature, suppresses weeds and retains moisture. Wood-chip mulch is also more attractive and natural-looking than spray-painted and shredded softer woods.
When worked into the soil, wood chips can assist in aeration and improve soil quality. Some gardeners allow wood chips to compost, or break down, before they are used for soil conditioning.
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References
- Photo Credit http://wwwalliedkencocom/catalog/index.php/cPath/627
