We’ve covered wood-based cat litter before but we’ve had a rather unusual email from Simon and I thought it was worth returning to the topic:

I’m e-mailing from an independent animal sanctuary in Northern Ireland.

We have about 100 cats here all using wood chip litter and would probably skip at least 100 litres a week. Do you know a way of turning the used litter (poo-free!) into burning fuel, and would that be more environmentally friendly than oil? I’ve experimented trying to compact it into short pieces of sewage pipe, but the problem is keeping the litter in one block.

To give you an idea, we would spend about £2000 a quarter during the winter on heating kennels and catteries electrically.

I’d be grateful for any suggestions, even if it’s to say “For Christ’s sake, what are you thinking man?” as it feels like we could be using this used litter for producing heat.

I tempted to say “For Christ’s sake, what are you thinking man?” just for the humour but I can see where he’s going with this. I guess it would be particularly galling if you had a biomass boiler or stove for heating: throwing away all those wood chips only to buy different ones back for burning.

This is basically an appeal for help/information/tips anything that might get Simon started on his way or conversely warn him off the plan if it’s unsound.

Anyone know if this is viable? As Simon says, the litter is poo-free but I presume it’s been wee-ed on – would that cause any problems for burning?

Any suggestions on how to make logs stick together or make pellets?

I hear that biomass boilers/stoves are quite expensive to install – anyone had any experience with this? Anything special Simon needs to consider?