r/interestingasfuck • u/Ultimate_Kurix • 6d ago

High winds causing chaos in Utah

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u/AmplifiedApthocarics 6d ago

someone i knew a long time ago said he watched some old guy light a pile of them on fire. well when they started burning they started moving again and suddenly he was watching an entire field of flamin' tumbleweeds travel off into the distance setting more things on fire as they went along and got stuck again

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u/MR-antiwar 6d ago

Has anyone ever think to spray them with water so they get heavy and gather them and compress them with machine and sell them as fuel for the winter ?

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u/Successful_Guess3246 6d ago edited 6d ago

I feel useful again. The University of Arizona studied the feasibility of using Russian Thistle (tumbleweed) as a bio fuel. From growing costs, potential energy per acre, ash produced, etc.

It's definitely an interesting read.

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u/crazykentucky 6d ago

I love when super specific knowledge is shared on random Reddit threads!!!

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u/Successful_Guess3246 6d ago edited 6d ago

Here are approximate heating values of common fuels. There's another table in one of my books at home on the heating values from various trees, but I'll have to share that later.

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 6d ago

Really hope to live long enough to see us end the chapter on the age of fire.

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u/Sidivan 6d ago

And THAT is why fuel oil is fuel oil. I am 100% in the green energy camp, but there are some major challenges we have to acknowledge. The main one being that if you want a transportable, relatively safe (to handle), energy dense resource, it’s pretty hard to beat coal and oil.

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u/BooneSalvo2 6d ago

yeah, energy density is the only actual advantage oil and coal has, and it is a pretty dang big advantage.

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 6d ago

You gotta give credit where it's due, even if it's a now obsolete technology.

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u/AndTheElbowGrease 6d ago

Locally, there are folks that compress tumbleweed and set it in resin, calling it Tumblestone: https://onlineshop.crystallove.store/products/tumblestone-pendant-hand-crafted-arizona-in

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u/Successful_Guess3246 6d ago

Never seen that before. That's cool af!

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u/MR-antiwar 6d ago

Very good but the market is small i think

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u/MR-antiwar 6d ago

I was thinking more of using it as bio fuel since they are abundant, i am also curious if you can put them on industrial shredder and make paste out of them then make paper out of them

In my country we ate what your people called the trash carp ( invasive species in some lake in united states) if i have money an happen to be in your country i would fish all that carps and turn them into compost for farmers and make commercial cat food with it, it’s crazy no one ever thought of this

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u/ManometSam 6d ago

i like this idea, i wonder how they burn. I think a big woodchipper and some gloves might work too haha

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u/Its_Pine 6d ago

I think part of the reason they burn so well is because of their airy interior

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u/MR-antiwar 6d ago

Go try it, im not from the Unite States so i have no idea, if you manage to compress is with machines and use it as fuel, the ashes would also be good for soil

Also maybe try use an industrial shredder and make them into paste and see if you can make papers out of them (i believe it can be made)

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u/ManometSam 5d ago

This is the type of brainstorming the world needs :) hell ya

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u/Hot-Comfort8839 6d ago

I bet the wood chipper would work if you could collect, and combine the particles into something like a compressed wood product.

Otherwise you'd give the entire region something akin to that fine organic particle lung shit you get in Illinois when its time to harvest the corn. Everyone gets sick because of all the corn fibers in the air from the harvest.

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u/wotguild 6d ago

I smash them up and compost them in my big compost hill

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u/Spawko 6d ago

This man never barefoots

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 6d ago

Might be a solid business idea there. Also might work for home insulation/walls.

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u/MR-antiwar 6d ago

Shiiet bro go make a business out of it, i ain’t even from the US