Storing Wood Chips in a Shipping Container

[luby492]

Newbie in need of advice. 
Hello all.  I would like to know if there would be any issues in storing green wood chips in a storage container, i.e heat, composting, mold, etc.  I have a shop located on an industrial site that backs up to a residential area.  The city would like me to keep the yard "neat" in respect to their residents.  So rather than storing the chips in a pile I would like to keep them in one of the three shipping containers that I currently own.  Any input or advice would be appreciated.

As a side note, I just put a logosol 360 moulder and Nyle kiln (using one of the other shipping containers) on order.  I am excited to get the new additions and put them to work. 

Thanks again.

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum!

I think that your wood chips would mold if put up green, and then there would also be the possibility of spontaneous combustion.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Is it possible to build a neat looking 3 sided fence to store your chips outside? Something that looks so good the neighbors would want a fence like yours.

Being a Firefighter, I have to agree with Chuck.....you don't want to tempt spontaneous combustion.

[hackberry jake]

Wet organic matter gets hot, when it gets hot it releases steam, once the level of moisture drops enough you get fire. I've seen where somebody baled hay too green and put it in a barn, it burnt down. We got a load of bark from a debarker to use as mulch for the garden and it got too hot to touch within a couple days. We had to spread it out before it caught fire. Especially  of a good time this time of year, especially in a sealed steel container. The fence idea sounds like the path to take. What are the long term plans for the chips?

[chevytaHOE5674]

Sawmill I used to work for had their pile of chips and bark catch fire one night due to spontaneous combustion. Then it was a huge mess to contain, we had to push the pile out flat with a dozer and end loader so that it could be properly watered down and kept under control, all in all it took a week to get under control. 

After that there was no more pile of chips and bark it all got disposed of as soon as possible. I can only imagine the end result of putting green chips in a shipping container....

[Taylortractornut]

I agee with the 3 sided fence/ bin.       At the landfill I run we get  chips from the power company and tree service.      I have a freind with a  tree service and he ground a load of limbs up and blew them in his  box dump.    He threw a drive line and broke a lock down  on his truck and   was stuck inplace.    THe next morning you couldnt touch the side of the truck.

[eastberkshirecustoms]

Besides what has already been mentioned, petty as it seems, maybe the city might start complaining about the 'ugly' storage containers also disrupting the residential view.

[John Mc]

The other thing to think of when storing green chips is wintertime storage. If they are not dried down to the fiber saturation point, they can freeze together. If they are out in the open, at least you have a chance of busting them up. In a container may be a different story entirely.

I school here in VT has a wood chip boiler heating system. Their supplier had the bright idea of loading up the truck for a delivery the night before, then dropping it off first thing in the morning. When he went to dump the chips into the school's storage hopper (basically an open top container with augers in the bottom for feeding), the usual pour of chips into the bin was just one big KA-CHUNK! The hopper was in a "sort of" heated area. Enough to keep their chips from freezing, but it would take forever to thaw the block that spent the night at -10˚.  Their augurs could not break it up. I'm told it was loads of fun figuring out how to get the huge block back out of their hopper so they could refill with loose chips and feed their boiler.

[westyswoods]

The question of what are you going to use them for is crucial? I've had up to 300 yards of chips on my property at a time. They make great compost and bedding for trails through prairie and woodlands.

If you should be thinking of using for heat source the major challenge is to use the oldest first and cycle through the stock. When put in a confined space there is a tendency to not get through the old before using new. Much like having too much firewood sooner or later it will be of little value if not used.