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Word on biomass as a renewable source of energy for future use
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Biomass energy can be defined as the organic energy that’s found in animals and plants. Biomass in the form of grass, garbage animals waste, crops, manure, leaves, trees, and plants can be an exceptional source of energy that can be used to replace the traditional energy. Through a scientific process known as photosynthesis, chlorophyll found in plants absorbs energy from the sun by converting the carbon dioxide in the water and air from the ground in carbohydrates. In return, the chemical energy that’s contained in the plants is transferred onto people and animals that consume them. This type of energy is considered as renewable because the water and carbon dioxide present in animals and plants are released back into the environment when they …show more content…
Plants release oxygen and use carbon dioxide. When plants and other sources of biomass materials decay, they are burnt to release carbon dioxide into the environment. When new plants and crops are grown, they use the same carbon dioxide that was released when the plants were burnt. Through this biomass energy definition, you will agree that this type of energy does not contribute towards global warming. It’s also important to note that if you fail to plant more crops, the carbon dioxide released may in turn lead to global warming. Biomass Energy Pros and Cons The Pros Biomass is in many ways a better source of energy. Wood has always been used as a source of fuel for ovens, fires, and traditional heating methods, but the introduction of biomass power brought about more uses and more advantages than wood. Biomass fuel products are readily available and can be produced in large quantity. What’s more, this type of power can be used in anything from energy plants to engines. Here are advantages of using biomass energy as a source of power: Renewable Source of …show more content…
Most of the wastes that are buried in landfills can be used to produce biomass power. The Cons Besides from the advantages mentioned above, there are also some disadvantages that are associated with biomass power. Here is a look at some of the cons of biomass power: Not Completely Clean When Burned There is a heated debate about the pollution that biomass produced when burned. Sometimes, the pollution produced from burning the biomass materials might be as worse as that produced by burning coal or other types of energy materials. Carbon dioxide is not the only compound that comes from heating biomass materials. Biomass energy is considered to be a renewable source of power but it’s difficult to prove that it’s completely an efficient and clean source of energy. Inefficient Biodiesel products like ethanol is very ineffective as compared to gasoline and you are always forced to mix it with some little amount of gasoline to make it efficient. It’s also important to note that long term of ethanol is not recommended as it can damage the engine. Can Cause
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC) was established in 1988, reported in 2007 in “very high confidence” that since 1750 human activity has played a major part in overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Whether it’s through cellular respiration or the burning of fossil fuels is debatable. Cellular respiration is a process of creating energy and it takes place in all living things, even in plants. Carbon dioxide, oxygen, light and water are important factors in this process. Keeping a balance level of carbon dioxide is crucial to the earth’s atmosphere, because if it gets too high, it increases the average temperature on earth, which is unfortunately what we are dealing with and call “global warming”. I believe cellular respiration does not affect global warming as greatly as industrial fossil fuels do.
Alternative energy sources are renewable, and is most commonly referred to as free energy sources. There are many alternative energy sources such as hydro power, solar power, wind, biomass, and geothermal. Using alternative sources is more expensive in the long run, but it is the much safer option for our environment compared to fossil fuels. Although everything used is completely free, such as water and wind, the equipment used to generate these things are expensive. There are several pros and cons that come with the utilization of alternative energy sources.
“The fuel is produced in a thermal/mechanical processor called a biomass fractionator. In a matter of minutes, the fractionator converts biomass like crop residues, algae, soft wood chips and rapid growth crops like switchgrass into multiple gas streams and into biochar. The gas can be upgraded to gasoline In a one-step catalytic conversion process.” (Rocke 1). The idea of this fuel source is also very cheap. It runs for about $1.50 per gallon. Finally, the use of Biochar can be shipped at in gallon tanks very easily. Aside from the cost and shipping efficiency, ‘According to one prominent study (Woolf et al, 2010), sustainable biochar implementation could offset a maximum of 12% of anthropogenic GHG emissions on an annual basis. Over the course of 100 years, this amounts to a total of roughly 130 petagrams (106 metric tons) of CO2-equivalents. The study assessed the maximum sustainable technical potential utilizing globally available biomass from agriculture and forestry. The study assumed no land clearance or conversion from food to biomass-crops (though some dedicated biomass-crop production on degraded, abandoned agricultural soils was included), no utilization of industrially treated waste biomass, and biomass extraction rates that would not result in soil erosion” (International Biochar Initiative
Many have said that bio-fuels are the fuel of the future, and others say it is just going to harm the atmosphere even more than are normal fuels. Well today we will be looking at some positives and negatives about bio-fuels.
Among various options available for bio-energy, bio-diesel, bio-ethanol and biomass gasification are three major options, which have huge potential in India to develop as energy sources and where investments made would be economical. The objective of this Business Plan is to review the option of electricity generation through the use of biomass energy.
According to Conserve Energy Future, biomass is energy contained within plants and animals. This includes organic matter from plants, animals, and other waste products from organic sources. The process of photosynthesis begins with the chlorophyll found in plants that absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as the water from the ground. This energy is then transferred to the animals once the plant is eaten by them. Biomass is considered to be a renewable source of energy because carbon dioxide and water contained inside plants and animals are released back into the atmosphere once they are burned. Large quantities of biomass are also able to regenerate within the time scale that it is being used. According to UCSUSA, most scientists believe that a wide range of biomass resources are very useful because they will reduce the overall carbon emissions along with many other benefits. The sources of biomass include: crops, manure, trees, along with wastes and residues.
Everyone needs to respire in order to live, which includes plants and animals. Trees and plants help to regulate the carbon cycle. When the trees take in the carbon dioxide from the environment, they give back to oxygen. When trees are cut down, there is a break in the carbon cycle, and there is no exchange in both oxygen and carbon dioxide which causes a spike in carbon dioxide levels. When these occur carbon dioxide moves in the atmosphere and stores there as a greenhouse gas. “However, deforestation still remains the second leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, just behind industrial emissions” (Culas). Greenhouse gases disturb the normal regulation of the weather. When greenhouse captures and stores heat problems occur. When the carbon dioxide levels in the greenhouse gases are increased, then the atmospheric conditions becomes unstable, which causes global warming. Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the earth, which is mostly caused by the greenhouse effects. Global warming present itself by affecting the environment by causing drought, floods, change in ecosystem, less fresh water available and other environmental issues. Trees play a big role not only in keeping the soil rich, regulating the water table, providing a stable anchor for soil to lessen soil erosion and providing nutrient rich soil for agriculture but it also helps in the absorption of carbon emission in the atmosphere.
Biodiesel is a clean burning renewable fuel made by various mix of agricultural oils, recycled cooking oil and animal fats. It is intended to be used as a substitute for diesel fuel, or can be blended with diesel fuel in any proportion. Biodiesel can be used in almost any diesel engine with slight alteration and no damage to the engine. As it has lower toxicity and safer to handle compared to diesel fuel, it constructs green jobs and improving our environment.
Biomass gasification is a process by which biofuel is produced. It has been used for over 180 years but in the last decades it has been reconsidered as an interesting technique due to the fact that oil supplies are decreasing. As mentioned before, gasification is a thermal process. Heat is added up in order to convert the organic mass to biofuel. The biomass usually undergoes drying, pyrolysis, partial oxidation and reduction. Nowadays the configurations used for gasification are three: fixed bed gasifier, fluidized bed gasifier and entrained bed gasifiers. The simplest configuration is the
Biofuel is energy that is harvested from biomass through incineration, or combustion of the material. Such biomass materials may include wood, paper, charcoal, crop residue, and agricultural waste. Biofuel is renewable, because such biomass materials can be produced to create biofuel. Many rural areas use biofuels as their major energy source, because biomass tends to be abundant in such areas. Sub-saharan areas depend a lot upon wood. The combustion of biomass releases sources of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide,
In Kristianstad, Sweden - fossil fuels were used for up to twenty years before it was replaced by biogas. The city relied mainly on fossil fuels to generate heat for its homes and businesses. Fossil fuels were a reliable source of energy but it cost too much for the continent and the use of it was taxed by the European Union’s carbon trading system so a new solution had to be developed. This solution was the use of biogas, which is created by burning waste materials such as potato peels, manure, used cooking oil, stale cookies and pig intestines to generate heat and electricity or is refined as fuel for cars. Biogas uses such materials that would otherwise decompose in farm fields or massive landfills that wouldn’t create any benefits. Biogas also helps towards the fight against global warming because it eliminates the biological waste that would otherwise cause air pollution and water pollution in the environment. Due to Kristianstad’s change to biogas for a source of ene...
According to the diagram provided, only 10% of the total energy used in the United States is obtained from renewable energy sources. Even though the use of biomass waste, a type of renewable energy, is only 5%, I claim that the United States should increase its usage above all other types of renewable energy.
Biomass produced from corn, sugar beets, wheat, sugar cane, wood, organic waste,agriculture waste,energy plants,alges,animal waste,animal and vegetable oils.These biomass energy resources gassificate for fuel, electricity,heating,transportation vehicle and many such things.In the world, in the United States,in Mauritius,in Southeast Asia and in the UK where are the most common usage area of the biomass energy.Furthermore, Turkey have biomass potantial most area in its land.
There have been countless forms of green renewable energy advancements in the last decade, ranging from biomass energy to geothermal energy. Through biomass research, technologies have been developed to convert biomass—pant matter such as trees, grasses, agricultural residue, algae, and other biological material—to fuels. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory claims that “These biofuels will reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil, improve our air quality, and support rural economies.”, although realistic implementation of this technology has yet to been uncovered (Science & Technology).
Energy can be put into two broad categories Renewable energy and none renewable energy. Renewable energy sources can be reused continually as they are abundantly found in nature. All of them are non-polluting but devices used to collect the energy may impact the environment adversely. They are free but producing storage equipment or converting them into another form of energy may be costly.