We have always been dependent on oil for about a century but what will we use when we start to run out? As oils is becoming harder to extract and to find we keep looking for newer and cleaner alternatives. Many people think we can produce energy for years with coal or nuclear power, but both of those types do just as much problem to the environment like oil. While the sun and the wind may be a good source of energy for the future but there is another great source of energy that does not have to depend on the environment. Biomass is energy produced from plant and animals waste. Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. This chemical is passed onto animals when they eat plants and then to humans when
we eat animals. It can either be used directly via combustion to produce heat, or indirectly after converting it to various forms of biofuel. It is the oldest source of renewable energy and was used by our ancient ancestors since they learned how to use fire. Biomass can be turned into fuel from burning wood, crops, animal manure, and human sewage. The chemical energy in biomass is released as heat when it is burned. The wood you burn in a fireplace is a biomass fuel. Wood and waste materials made from wood and garbage are burned to produce steams to produce electricity or heat. Burning it is not the only way to release its energy. Biomass can be converted into other usable forms of energy such as methane gas, transportation fuel like ethanol and biodiesel. Garbage and agricultural and human waste release methane gas also known as landfill gas or biogas. We can use the methane released to make natural gas since methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. Crops such as corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce
ethanol. Biodiesel and other transportation fuels can be made from vegetable oils and animal fats. So how helpful is biomass? In 2013 biomass provided about 5% of the energy used in the United States. Out of that 5% about 45% was from wood and woodland derived biomass. The next was from biofuels (44%). And about 11% was from municipal waste. Although biofuels are just about as important as wood researchers are trying to find new ways to use more biomass for fuel. Wood is a great way to produce energy but at the rate that we use energy we could have to limit on how much we use. Wood had always been used as a fuel source for thousands of years. It was the main source of energy in the United States up until the mid-1800's. It still continues to be a popular source for cooking and heating in the United States. From 2005 to 20012 there was a 50% increase in the number of homes that use wood as the primary source of heating. Today in the United States 2% of the energy we use comes from wood and wood waste such as bark, sawdust, wood chips, wood scrap, and paper mill residues. About 80% of the wood and wood waste fuel in the United States is consumed by electric power producers and commercial businesses. It is not uncommon to see many
wood manufacturing plants using their own wood waste to generate their own steam and electricity. The other 20% of wood waste in the United States is used in homes. What if i told you that we can solve two problems at a time? Well we can by converting garbage into energy yes garbage! In 1960 the average American threw away 2.7 pounds of trash a day. Today each American throws away about 4.4 pounds of trash every day! Of that 1.5 pounds are recycled or composted, but what should we do with the rest? Should we let it just pile up in a landfill? One option is to burn it. Since 85% of our household trash is material that will burn and mostly bogenic or material that is made from biomass. Garbage (MSW) is taken to special burning facilities called waste-to-energy plants. There are about 86 of these plants in the United States that generate electricity from steam harvested from the heat of burning garbage. In 2011 these plants generated 14 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which is the same used by 1.3
million homes in the United States. Although these plants do make energy they cost more to generate electricity at these plants than it does at coal, nuclear, or hydro power plants it still has a major advantage. By burning waste it reduces the amount of garbage we have in landfills. In 2011 waste-to-energy plants burned 29 million tons of MSW. Burning MSW can reduce the volume of waste by 87%. Another form of biomass is biogas. In order to get biogas you need to collect gas from landfills. Landfills are a source of energy because anaerobic bacteria that live in landfills decompose organic waste to produce a gas called biogas that contains methane.Landfills collect the methane gas, treat it, and then sell it as a commercial fuel. It then can then be burned to generate steam and electricity. As of July 2013, there were 621 operational landfill gas projects in the United States. California had 77 landfill gas energy
projects in operation followed by Pennsylvania with 44 and Michigan with 41. With all of these great alternatives derived from biomass how much better are they for the environment? Biomass has its positives and its negatives like all most energy source there is. Using wood, and charcoal made from wood, for heating and cooking can replace fossil fuels and may result in lower CO2 emissions but burning wood in areas that where it is harvested faster than trees can grow it can lead to deforestation. By planting fast-growing trees and using fuel-efficient cooking stoves we can stop deforestation and improve the environment. Waste-to-energy plants can be hazardous to people and the environment because they release the chemicals and substances from the materials being burned. The U.S. EPA has applied strict rules to these plants and requires them to use air pollution control devices to capture their air pollutants. Although biomass can be produced into energy from many ways and it does have its drawbacks it has more positives. I can see biomass continuing to grow in the recent years. Biomass has recently supplied more renewable electricity (biopower) than both wind and solar power combined. And I wouldn't be surprised to see it continue since there would be a never ending supply of it just as long as humans are living.
We have always been dependent on oil for about a century but what will we use when we start to run out? As oils is becoming harder to extract and to find we keep looking for newer and cleaner alternatives. Many people think we can produce energy for years with coal or nuclear power, but both of those types do just as much problem to the environment like oil. While the sun and the wind may be a good source of energy for the future but there is another great source of energy that does not have to depend on the environment. Biomass is energy produced from plant and animals waste. Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. This chemical is passed onto animals when they eat plants and then to humans when
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