Biomass

Paige Morrison

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF RESOURCE:What is it?

• Natural materials that contain stored energy from the sun are Biomass.

• Wood, straw, manure, garbage and alcohol fuels are all examples of Biomass.

• The plants absorb minerals and nutrients from sunlight in order to grow into the necessary materials for biomass.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF RESOURCE:Location

•Located in places with lots of trees, animals, crops, and garbage. •It is found in large densities at most crop and animal farms and in large forested areas.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF RESOURCE:

Scale

• Biomass can be used on both large and small scale sites.

• Large scale power plants burn Biomass to create steam to produce energy.

• Home scale wood and pellet stoves have become increasingly common.

• The more sunlight

there is, the easier plants grow – more

biomass.

TECHNOLOGYHow does it work?

•The m ost popular way to m ake biom ass into

power is to burn it to produce heat because it

is chem ical energy.

•The waste wood, tree branches and other

scraps are gathered together in big trucks.

•The trucks bring the waste from factories and

from farm s to a biom ass power where it is

dum ped into huge hoppers.

• The biom ass is fed into a furnace where it is

burned and the heat produced is used to boil

water in the boiler, and the energy in the

steam is used to turn turbines and generators.

TECHNOLOGYExperimental or Mature?

• Biomass technology has been around for a long time, so it is

mature.• Bio-fuel technology is still being

developed and is extremely experimental.

USESCurrent:

Stoves produce heat on at home scale.

Biomass is used to produce electricity at a large scale.

Bio-fuels are produced from plants for transportation.

USE SProjected:

• Biofuel will become more available, and

will replace fossil fuels.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUESwith extracting processes

• At large scale sites, the burning of

biomass to create energy makes, CO2

• It is argued that the CO2 released into

the atmosphere by power plants is

recycled by plants in the cycle of

photosynthesis.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUESwith processing, transporting and using

It is feared that in order to continue with the production of biomass power plants, trees and forests will be cut down in order to fulfill the demand.

The American Heart Association and the American Lung Association have called Biomass a danger to public health due to various issues including respiratory illnesses and heart disease.

ECONOMIC ISSUES: competition with other energy resources

• It accounts for almost 15% of the world's total energy supply and as much as 35% in developing countries, mostly for cooking and heating.

• It is a widely utilized source of energy due to its low cost and indigenous nature

ECONOMIC ISSUES :How costs might change in the

future

• Right now the cost of Biomass is extremely low because it easy to find.

• Biomass is produced naturally so the prices will not likely go up.

• Bio-fuel prices will go down as it becomes easier to produce.

Multiple-choice question #1

Which resource is not bio mass?

b.Animal Manure

c. Garbage

d.Corn

e.Uranium

Multiple-choice question #2

About how much of the world’s energy supply does biomass account for?

a. 13%

b. 15%

c. 7%

d. 35%

Multiple-choice question #3

What type of energy is Biomass?

a. Electromagnetic

b. Kinetic

c. Chemical

d. Thermal

Multiple-choice question #4

Why is Biomass widely utilized as an energy source?

a. Because it has a low cost.

b. Because people like to see deforestation.

c. Because it produces no CO2

d. It can be converted to electricity effortlessly.

Credits

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-biomass-energy-works.html#converting_biomass

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/biomass.htm

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/08/18/is-biomass-really-renewable/