Wood as an Energy Source in the Tennessee Valley Region

TVA has been working with wood energy production systems for only a short time, but we have been involved with forest development for many years, and our experience has led us to believe in the viability of using wood for energy production. Commercial forests of the Tennessee Valley region (125 watershed counties, plus another 76 counties where TVA provides Power) occupy some 30.5 million acres. The annual total tree growth from these lands is about 2.3 billion cubic feet of wood-equivalent to 38 million tons of coal in heat value. Conventional forest products now consume some 580 million cubic feet of wood annually, and allowing for a 2 percent buildup tn inventory, a residual of some 1 billion cubic feet could be used for expansion of conventional wood-using industries and energy. If the conventional wood-using industries double their use of wood resources, the current forest biomass growth in the Valley region is still sufficient to supply some 15 million coal-ton- equivalents of energy (nearly one-third quadrillion Btu\u27s), or about bo percent of the coal energy used in TVA\u27s steam plants (TVA\u27s 12 coal-fired steam Plants burned 37.b million tons of coal in calendar year 1977). Through the introduction of improved forestry practices in the Valley, it is realistic to expect at least a 50 percent increase in forest growth, thus making an even greater volume of wood available for energy

Rifabutin Use in Staphylococcus Biofilm Infections: A Case Series

This is a case series of 10 patients who had staphylococcal biofilm infections that were treated with adjuvant rifabutin therapy instead of rifampin therapy. In these cases, rifampin was contraindicated secondary to drug–drug interactions with the patients’ chronic medications. Rifabutin therapy was well tolerated with no side effects. As well, no patients had recurrence of their staphylococcal infections. This case series shows that rifabutin can be a beneficial adjuvant therapy in Staphylococcus biofilm infections when drug–drug interactions limit the use of rifampin.</jats:p