Green Energy
Biomass
What is Biomass?
Biomass is the biological component which is obtained from living organisms of nature. It is also referred as plant based material when energy is produced from biomass. At the same time, biomass is also applicable for both animal and vegetable resultant components.
Biomass is a renewable energy source and it can re-grow quite quickly. Sun's energy is captured by plants' chlorophyll through the photosynthesis process. Here, carbohydrates are created by converting carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground. They are complex combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
Basically, plant materials are either broken down by micro-organisms or burned. After burning, carbohydrates are transformed into carbon dioxide and water and release the energy harnessed from the sun. This process is known as the carbon cycle in the earth.In this technique, biomass works like natural battery in order to store solar energy.Appropriate utilization of biomass can enhance the longevity of this natural battery as well as provide low-carbon energy sources. Sustainable low-carbon biomass is great source of new renewable energy which is environmentally friendly indeed.
Types of Beneficial Biomass
There are following types of beneficial biomass in this planet:
- Wood and forest residues which are harvested in sustainable way.
- Crop residues like wheat straw.
- Energy crops which don’t compete with food crops for land.
- Clean industrial and municipal wastes.
Typically, beneficial biomass sources help to maintain and increase the stocks of carbon stored in plants or soil. It also moves emissions from fossil fuels, like coal, natural gas and oil. Most sustainable and effective biomass resources may be varied from region to region. It also depends on the types of final application you wish to use. For example, you can utilize biomass as bio power, bio products, heat and biofuel.
How to convert Biomass into Bio power
Generating heat energy by burning biomass is one of the most familiar method since long time. This biomass fired heat can produce steam power which can be utilized to produce electricity. Burning biomass in conventional boilers provides environmental and air-quality benefits over burning fossil fuels.
Recent researches by researchers indicate that biomass can be converted more cleanly into liquid fuels. For example, producing combustible gases from gaseous process. It decreases different kinds of emissions from biomass combustion.
Benefits of Biomass
Typically, biomass offers environmental, economic and energy security benefits. - Biomass energy decreases air pollution and net carbon emissions.
- It contributes to protect the quality of soil, maintain wildlife habitat and avoid erosion.
- Biomass helps to minimize the dependency on importing fossil fuels which reduces our expenses.
- Rapid growth of biomass energy technology helps farmers and forest owners to obtain valuable new markets for their new energy crops, forest and crops residues.
- It contributes to minimize the global warming.
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Landfill Gas Power Plants And Biomass
Landfill gas power basically refers to the two greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide and methane. It is therefore a form of biomass used in the generation of energy whereby biomass refers to the microorganisms found in organic materials from animals and...
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Biofuels
What are Biofuels? Biofuels are fuel having energy from geologically recent carbon fixation which are produced from living organisms. Carbon fixation exists in plants and micro algae. These fuels are produced from a biomass conversion. There are...
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Electricity Can Be Produced Directly From Biomass By Solar-induced Hybrid Fuel Cell
A new solar-induced direct biomass-to-electricity hybrid fuel cell can operate on fuels as varied as powdered wood. The fuel cell relies on a polyoxometalate (POM) catalyst (shown in the vials) which changes color as it reacts with light. Now, researchers...
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Types Of Biomass
Scientists recognize four types of biomass:Wood and agricultural products: This consists of so-called ‘home-grown' products such as wood logs and chips etc. It is important to note that almost any biological matter can produce biomass energy. Agricultural...
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Why Use Biomass?
One of the biggest advantages of using biomass is the fact that it is a renewable energy source. Making use of biomass energy means that the carbon emissions usually associated with burning fossil fuels are drastically reducing, thereby diminishing the...
Green Energy