What is Biomass Energy and how can we use it?
Some is just debris lying around - dead trees, grass cuttings, tree branches, hedge clippings, left-over crops, wood chip, bark and sawdust from lumber mills. It can even include used tires and livestock manure. Your rubbish, (paper products that can't be recycled into other paper products) and other household waste are normally sent to the tip. This rubbish contains some types of biomass that can be reused. Recycling biomass for fuel and other uses cuts down on the need for 'landfills' to hold waste.
This rubbish nobody seems to want can be used to produce electricity, heat, compost material or fuels. Composting material is decayed plant or food products mixed together in a compost pile and spread to help plants grow.
How biomass works is very simple. The waste wood, tree branches and other scraps are gathered together. The trucks bring this waste from factories and farms to a biomass power plant. Here the waste is dumped into huge hoppers. This is then fed into a furnace where it is burned. The heat is used to boil water in the boiler and the energy in the steam is used to turn turbines and generators.
When garbage decomposes, it gives off methane gas. Pipelines are put into the landfills and the methane gas can be collected. It is then used in power plants to make electricity. This type of biomass is called landfill gas.
A similar thing can be done at livestock farms. In places where a lot of animals are raised, the cattle, cows and even chickens produce manure. When manure decomposes, it also gives off methane gas similar to rubbish. This gas can be burned right at the farm to make energy to run the farm.
Using biomass can help reduce global warming compared to a fossil fuel-powered plant. Plants use and store carbon dioxide (CO2) when they grow. CO2 stored in the plant is released when the plant material is burned or decays. By replanting the crops, the new plants can use the CO2 produced by the burned plants. So using biomass and replanting helps close the carbon dioxide cycle. However, if the crops are not replanted, then biomass can emit carbon dioxide that will contribute toward global warming.
So, the use of biomass can be environmentally friendly because the biomass is reduced, recycled and then reused. It is also a renewable resource because plants to make biomass can be grown over and over.
Today, new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. One way is to produce ethanol, a liquid alcohol fuel. Ethanol can be used in special types of cars that are made for using alcohol fuel instead of gasoline. The alcohol can also be combined with gasoline. This reduces our dependence on oil - a non-renewable fossil fuel.
A woodburning stove is a type of small single dwelling biomass boiler, although it has to be fed manually, it is possible to burn several types of organic matter ie woodchips.
For more information please visit The Energy Saving Trust.