Part VI: Biomass And Biofuels

Part VI: Biomass And Biofuels, is interesting as I live in Iowa, which is becoming huge in the Ethanol production business, and even though we need to use all of our resources, I think this is one with a potential for great harm,as more and more land is used for "fuel" needs instead of for food production. There is already shortages in many places on this planet, and when we put "our" energy needs ahead people who are starving, we may quickly slide down the "slippery slope" to our own destruction. So while this is another resource we need to exploit, we should do so with some trepidation, and not rely on it as a "long" term energy source~~The crop part of it anyway.
So we begin with an introduction to Biomass. Biomass is all plant and animal matter on the Earth's surface. Harvesting biomass such as crops, trees or dung and using it to generate energy such as heat, electricity or motion, is bioenergy.
Biomass is a very broad term which is used to describe material of recent biological origin that can be used either as a source of energy or for its chemical components. As such, it includes trees, crops, algae and other plants, as well as agricultural and forest residues. It also includes many materials that are considered as wastes by our society including food and drink manufacturing effluents, sludges, manures, industrial (organic) by-products and the organic fraction of household waste.
Farm waste such as cow manure is processed into biomass to form biogas. It can be used in bottled gas for gas cooking appliances. Crops such as switch-grass, corn and sugarcane are produced to form ethanol which can be used to fuel vehicles and presently are so, to great success. Waste heat harnessed by waste-to-energy plants can generate electricity for heating buildings. Among energy sources referred to as biofuels is domestic rubbish. About 15% of municipal solid waste is burned.
One of the major advantages of Biomass Energy as a source of fuels is its renewable. With approximately 140 billion metric tons of biomass produced every year and growing, we could see biomass fuels replacing fossil fuels in the near future as they deplete even further increasingthe demand for a cheap, efficient renewable fuel source.

Biomass can further be divided into more specific terminology, with different terms for different end uses: heating, power (electricity) generation or transportation. We tend to use the term 'bioenergy' for biomass energy systems that produce heat and/or electricity and 'biofuels' for liquid fuels for transportation. Bioenergy can also be used for cooling using absorption chillers that work on the same principle as your refrigerator.

In recent years, environmentalists and policymakers have struggled to evaluate the merits of various biomass resources. This has posed an enormous challenge, in part, because biomass brings together a host of environmental disciplines, including air, water, land-use, climate, and energy. Since few people have expertise in all of these areas, the full range of environmental impacts – both positive and negative – are not as readily apparent for biomass as they are for solar, wind, or traditional fossil resources. As a result, environmental groups, large and small, approach the topic of biomass with exceeding caution despite the fact that biomass has the potential to be one of the few carbon-neutral and renewable energy resources that is available on demand and has large-scale, commercially viable applications.
Biomass electricity generation, or biopower, is a multi-stage process that converts non-fossil fuel-derived organic material into electricity. Biomass can also be used to produce fuels – biofuels – that can be used in vehicles. Because the vegetation that is the base for all biomass can be regrown, biopower and biofuels can be renewable. This means that biopower and biofuels can help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and nuclear power. If the biomass is regrown, then it will sequester all of the carbon dioxide released when the biomass is burned. This means that biopower and biofuels can help reduce the risks of climate change. Furthermore, since biomass can be stored and burned when needed, biopower can be available on demand, unlike wind and solar which are only available when the wind blows and the sun shines. A 1997 Energy Innovations report from a group of environmental organizations forecasts that by 2030 with proper incentives, biomass could provide more than half of all renewable energy in our economy and over 15% of all our energy needs.
However, in order for the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and create a sustainable energy industry, biomass companies must substantially increase their market share of electric generation. Unfortunately, the biomass industry operates under a dark cloud that seriously impairs its ability to meet this challenge. This is due, in large part, to the poor environmental record of the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW), a highly suspect category of materials that can be laced with deadly toxins that are emitted into the air when burned. Unfortunately, MSW is often considered to be a form of biomass, a cause of great concern for environmental and public health interests who would prefer to focus the developmental potential of this technology on the many clean and renewable organic alternatives. In addition, the negative environmental impacts of factory farms, poor forest management, and large-scale agribusiness have compounded the pessimism surrounding America’s biomass industry. Biomass developers have done little to alleviate this problem, as many fail to adequately distinguish sustainable projects from their toxic siblings.
The greatest challenge to policies intended to promote biomass is targeting them toward the environmentally preferable forms of biomass. To shed light on this question, a coalition of major environmental groups have crafted and endorsed a statutory definition that maximizes the clean and renewable energy potential of biomass projects. By adopting this definition, states have an opportunity to help shape the future of America’s biomass industry and ensure that biomass technology is implemented in a way that maximizes its clean and renewable potential.
That is where SERC Comes in: The State Environmental Resource Center (SERC) researches state environmental policies and assembles information and tools to help legislators make important decisions on key environmental issues. SERC identifies the most innovative and effective state policies, and exposes anti-environmental legislative trends. They have much more information at their website (www.serconline.org) with links, talking points, etc. A very interesting site.

Tomorrow Part VII: Hydropower

link to educational website on biomass and biofuels