KISH>Grassroots>Electricity
Biomass

Description


What is Biomass?
Biomass electricity is one type of renewable energy with great power. "Biomass" means all kinds of organic matter renewable for conversion to energy. This includes crops, agriculture residues, commercial wood, logging residues, animal wastes, and the organic portion of municipal solid waste and methane gas from landfills. Biomass accounts for about 15% of the worlds energy.

The production of power from biomass energy

Step one: Direct combustion is the best way of capturing the energy contained within biomass. They can also produce heat, which is then captured for one purpose or another (heat a building, greenhouse, or lumber kiln, etc.).
Step two: Coal is fossilized biomass heated and compressed over millions of years. The process which coal undergoes as it is heated and compressed deep within the earth, adds elements like sulphur and mercury to the coal. Burning coal for heat or electricity releases these elements, which biomass does not contain.  
Step three: Gasification is the newest method to generate electricity from biomass. Instead of simply burning the fuel, gasification captures about 65-70% of the energy in fuel by converting it first into gases.

Step four: This gas is then burned as natural gas to create electricity, fuel a vehicle, in industrial applications, or converted to synfuels -- synthetic fuels. Since this is the latest technology, it is still under development and is not commercially available quite yet.

Step five: In some of the feedstock's, "slogging and fouling" can occur. Slogging is accumulation of solid residues on parts of the combustion system. Fouling is simply the accumulation of liquid or semi-liquid residue. 



Advantages of BIOMASS Power.

Disadvantages of BIOMASS Power
  • Landfill biomass energy is renewable
  • transport not possible due to moisture content
  • Maybe practical for individual landowner.
  • Particulate pollution from biomass burners
    • not harmful to the earth, and is made mostly from organic materials
  • Many people are trying to recycle more, which may reduce the amount of landfill available in the future


    • Source:

    http://www.google.ca/search?q=biomass&hl=en&meta=
    http://www.biomass.org/
    J.A.C Kentfeild."Biomass energy."The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus.CD=ROM. (not given), 1996.

    Http://www.google.ca/search?q+biomass&hl=en&meta=

    Http://www.biomass.org/

    J.A.C. Kentfield. "Biomass Energy." The Canadian Encyclopedia and CD ROM, 1996.