Biomass, also known as solid biofuel, is a relatively simple energy source and like any energy source, there are pros and cons to biomass energy.
Biomass Energy Pros and Cons
Lets start with the advantages of biomass energy:
- Wood burning at home is much cheaper than any other heating source.
- Biomass is usually grown locally so it helps local economies.
- Using the proper filters, biomass stoves can emit less pollutants than coal or oil heating.
- Biomass is abundant and using naturally occurring waste, like dead trees, does not harm the environment. It’s also an renewable energy source.
- Biomass is carbon neutral. It doesn’t emit more carbon than it originally stored.
- Biomass is available all over the world. In North America, wood pellets from the paper industry can be used as heating sources. While in South American, sugar cane stalks and corn stalks are used as biomass. In Asia the focus moves on to rice based biomass.
- Industrial biomass plants can be created in remote areas and on small scales for energy production.
Now the disadvantages of biomass energy:
- Without proper filtration, the burning of biomass can produce Nitrogen oxides and CO, Carbon monoxide, both which are known to reduce air quality and are greenhouse gases.
- To use biomass as a heat source, a large amount of energy is required and it must be continuously implemented into the system in order for the process to continue.
- Heating systems which use biomass briquettes often require some electricity to work.
- Biomass requires a lot of storage area for the amount of energy produced.
- Biomass power plants have run into opposition by residents who feel that their air quality would be reduced by a plant near by. So they don’t have the chic factors or Wind or Solar energy or other forms of alternative power.
- Once the biomass is used up, the ashes and residue left over must be safely disposed of.
- Industrial capacity and production of biomass is low and not an important method of energy production. The power plants require large areas to store biomass and large areas to store the residue after processing.
- Biomass has a limited energy potential. You can only cut so many trees down in a forest before there are any left.
