You may never have heard the term "biomass" before, but it's the second most-common form of renewable energy we use today.
The word biomass means organic matter - biomass energy (or "biofuels") comes from natural material, such as wood products, municipal solid waste, agricultural crops and even landfill gases.
If you burn wood in a fireplace, you're producing biomass energy; if you put ethanol gasoline in your car, you're consuming biomass energy.
A few examples of large-scale biomass energy production include:
Biomass energy offers significant environmental advantages: - It contains no sulfur, so it doesn't contribute to acid rain
- It saves space in landfills by re-using waste products
- It contributes no new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere - any CO2 emitted during electricity generation is reabsorbed by new plant material.
In addition, growing agricultural crops for energy production helps stabilize the soil, reduces erosion and chemical runoff, controls flooding and enhances wildlife habitat.
Good for the Midwest economy
The use of biomass energy has a particular appeal in the Midwest, because the use of agricultural products can have economic benefits as well.
The U.S. Department of Energy projects that energy crops like switchgrass or even fast-growing trees could provide more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity annually by the year 2010, supporting more than 170,000 jobs and diversifying local farming operations.
Agricultural waste on farms can be processed and converted to fuel (methane) to generate electricity, reduce odor and minimize groundwater problems. |
 Did you know?
Biomass currently
supplies about 4% of
the energy produced
in the United States,
and could provide
almost 20%.
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