Biomass Power

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Biomass Power
Adele Freeman David Clem David Leonard
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Uses of Biomass Energy

• Heating
• Cooking
• Compost Material
• Electricity

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Biomass
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How It Works

• Waste wood, branches, other scraps gathered by
  trucks
• Bring waste from farm to power plant
• Biomass dropped into huge hoppers
• Fed into furnace and burned

• Heat used to boil water in boiler
• Creates steams, turning turbines

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Energy Sources

• Wood is largest biomass energy source
• Food crops
• Grassy and woody plants
• Residues from agriculture or forestry
• Organic component of municipal and industrial
  wastes
• Fumes from land fills (methane gas)

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Benefits of Biomass

• Burning biomass releases CO2, but equals out
  amount of CO2 plant took in over its lifespan
• Reduce dependence on foreign oil
• Unlike other renewable energy sources, biomass
  can be converted directly into liquid fuels,
  called "biofuels"

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What would it replace?

• Biomass energy would replace non-renewable
  energies such as natural gas, nuclear, coal and
  other mainstream energy sources.

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Where is it being used?

• It is used throughout the United States
• Biomass is currently the second most commonly
  used form of renewable energy in the U.S.

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Pros

• Reduction of new greenhouse gas emissions
• Less dependency on foreign oil with use of
  ethanol and biodiesel
• Support the economy by increasing demand for
  suppliers of the biomass

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Cons

• High costs installing the technology
• High cost growing, harvesting and storing the raw
  materials
• Burning the biomass creates liquid and gas wastes

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Challenges we would face

• The main problem that we would face in making
  this a mainstream form of energy would be cost.
  Installing the technologies that would be able to
  burn, recycle and refine the biomass would cost
  very much. It would involve a large risk to begin
  depending on this form, no one is sure if it
  could sustain large regions.

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Will it become mainstream?

• Very significant chance of becoming mainstream.
• People want more renewable energy to replace
  non-renewable energy.
• More than 40 countries are expanding in biomass
  power generation.

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Specific Infrastructure Needed

• Increase production of crops is vital to making
  biomass energy.
• Biomass power plants to burn the crops and make
  the energy.

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Works Cited

• "The Energy Story - Chapter 10 Biomass Energy."
  Energy Quest Room. 05 Feb. 2009
  lthttp//www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter10.htm
  lgt.
• NREL Learning - Biomass Energy Basics."
  National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Home
  Page. 05 Feb. 2009
• lthttp//www.nrel.gov/learning/re_biomass.htmlgt.
• "Renewable Energy - Biomass including wood, MSW,
  and biofuels, carbon cycle, photosynthesis."
  Energy Information Administration - EIA -
  Official Energy Statistics from the U.S.
  Government. 05 Feb. 2009 lthttp//www.eia.doe.gov
  /kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/biomass.htmlgt.
  
• "EERE Biomass Program Home Page." EERE. 05 Feb.
  2009 lthttp//www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/gt.
• Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment.
  Belmont Brooks/Cole, 2001.