The Carbon Cycle
When trees grow, they absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. During the burning of wood, carbon dioxide which was initially absorbed, is released back into the atmosphere. In essence, this provides no overall increase in the level of atmospheric CO2. If the tree was to die naturally, it would still break down and thus eventually release the same amount of CO2 back into the atmosphere. The burning of wood pellets just speeds up this process. It is more commonly known as the Carbon Cycle (shown below). Click here to see a more detailed overview of how our biomass boilers use this fuel.