When considering alternative energy strategies, the advantages of biomass are notable and one significant one is that burning the fuel does not contribute to the carbon cycle like fossil fuels in an unsustainable way. With an inexorable rise in levels of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, there is an urgent need to tackle the sources if the earth is to avoid irreversible climate change.
Biomass is a renewable source of organic energy coming from a wide variety of materials including alcohol fuels, tree roots, branches, wood shavings and chips as well as from agricultural waste such as livestock manure, silage and crop residues. The fuel for biomass reactors can either be specially grown, such as miscanthus, switch grass, hemp or poplar and willow trees, or as a by-product such as wood pellets.
Plainly among the advantages of biomass is the ability to significantly curtail the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity, heat and steam in industrial, farming and residential contexts. Another plus for using biomass is that it is highly available in relative terms. Given the option for continuous replanting it is fairly described as a renewable, which sees the carbon released by combustion being recovered during plant growth, and so this source is properly describes as carbon neutral.
When biomass is taken from agricultural wastes such as straw and husks it is effectively a by-product and so it increases the value of the original agricultural crop. The subsequent replanting acts as a carbon sink for the carbon dioxide released during combustion, while at the same time releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
With the ever increasing pressure on landfill sites to absorb municipal waste streams, the use of this source as biomass will see a gradual tailing off of waste heading to these sites, where significant releases of methane, a greenhouse gas over twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide, occurs.
Among the advantages of biomass is the ability to use it in a way that has less intense environmental impact than when there is combustion. This means that instead of burning the biomass, a process which then has to be balanced by sufficient planting of trees to act as a carbon dioxide sink, the process of anaerobic digestion is used to convert the waste into gases which can be used to drive turbines.
Increased combustion efficiency can be achieved in transport vehicles by employing ethanol derived from biomass in a variety of new biofuel mixes, with the added benefit of being cleaner burning than the traditional longer chain carbon fossil fuels. Evidently biomass fuels have uses in producing heat and electricity as well as an alternative transport fuel to petroleum derivatives.
It seems governments across the world see the growth of new renewable energy plants as one way to address the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. A key consideration, however, is the need for a sufficient and steady level of baseload supply, as it is not enough to just provide extra capacity to meet peak demands. Sometimes the wind doesn't blow and the sun does not always shine, and the tides have to turn, all are periods when no electricity can be produced, while the advantages of biomass sources is that they do not have this constraint.
Biomass is a renewable source of organic energy coming from a wide variety of materials including alcohol fuels, tree roots, branches, wood shavings and chips as well as from agricultural waste such as livestock manure, silage and crop residues. The fuel for biomass reactors can either be specially grown, such as miscanthus, switch grass, hemp or poplar and willow trees, or as a by-product such as wood pellets.
Plainly among the advantages of biomass is the ability to significantly curtail the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity, heat and steam in industrial, farming and residential contexts. Another plus for using biomass is that it is highly available in relative terms. Given the option for continuous replanting it is fairly described as a renewable, which sees the carbon released by combustion being recovered during plant growth, and so this source is properly describes as carbon neutral.
When biomass is taken from agricultural wastes such as straw and husks it is effectively a by-product and so it increases the value of the original agricultural crop. The subsequent replanting acts as a carbon sink for the carbon dioxide released during combustion, while at the same time releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
With the ever increasing pressure on landfill sites to absorb municipal waste streams, the use of this source as biomass will see a gradual tailing off of waste heading to these sites, where significant releases of methane, a greenhouse gas over twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide, occurs.
Among the advantages of biomass is the ability to use it in a way that has less intense environmental impact than when there is combustion. This means that instead of burning the biomass, a process which then has to be balanced by sufficient planting of trees to act as a carbon dioxide sink, the process of anaerobic digestion is used to convert the waste into gases which can be used to drive turbines.
Increased combustion efficiency can be achieved in transport vehicles by employing ethanol derived from biomass in a variety of new biofuel mixes, with the added benefit of being cleaner burning than the traditional longer chain carbon fossil fuels. Evidently biomass fuels have uses in producing heat and electricity as well as an alternative transport fuel to petroleum derivatives.
It seems governments across the world see the growth of new renewable energy plants as one way to address the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. A key consideration, however, is the need for a sufficient and steady level of baseload supply, as it is not enough to just provide extra capacity to meet peak demands. Sometimes the wind doesn't blow and the sun does not always shine, and the tides have to turn, all are periods when no electricity can be produced, while the advantages of biomass sources is that they do not have this constraint.
About the Author:
Living on the beautiful island of Anglesey in Wales, UK, the author, David Phillips, manages an informative website focusing on local news and information. Learn more about Anglesey biomass projects and the prospects for this energy island. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.
