What is Biomass Energy?
We can define biomass as the products of the living natural world which can be used as an energy source. So any tree or woody material, animal waste or waste from agricultural processing is biomass. In the united states a large source of biomass comes from the forestation and paper industry and it’s by products, while in Asia the primary form of biomass is that of rice products.
Think of it. In the fall all the trees shed their leafs and the grass all dies. Your left with raking it all up into bags and sending it to the dump. Where it’ll decompose and sit to waste. Each one of those leafs is an potential energy source which we are wasting each and every day.
Biomass as a source of energy is unique because it is the waste products of our every day life. Most of these products were destined to go tot he landfill and be wasted, even though they are a viable energy source. The products are also carbon neutral, which means they’ve already been incorporated in the carbon cycle above ground.
Biomass is already being used as a fuel source in the form of ethyl alcohol fuels from corn. Many gas stations now offer high percentage ethanol biofuels at their stations, however ethanol mixed fuels are not as efficient as pure gasoline and are typically regarded as lower standard fuels.
Ethanol from corn also has another evil. Since for farmers it’s more productive to produce corn for fuel rather than food consumption we actually saw a drop in the amount of corn for consumption which led to higher prices for food in the world, as corn is one of the most consumed food stuffs on the planet.
Another problem that biomass faces is a clean and efficient way to extract it’s energy. Currently we require heavy chemical processing which leaves plenty of toxic waste as it is. There are biochemical alternatives which use organic molecules such as bacteria and enzymes to break down the biomass just like it would in the natural world. But on a large scale, this is not yet viable.
