Executive Summary
The development of renewable and alternative energy is becoming more and more necessary as the traditional fossil fuel energy is a non-renewable energy and can cause various environmental problems such as the global warming effect.
However, the challenge today in generating alternative energy is to find a cost effective way while has the smallest harmful environmental impacts. Developing bioenergy have the advantage of reducing greenhouse gas emission while creating great economic values.
Introduction
Biomass energy is considered as one of the renewable energies in the latest alternative energy sources development. According to the renewable energy consumption source data Table. I from U.S energy information administration, biomass energy is the largest source of renewable energies and the total share of biomass energy among all of the five alternative energies is approximately 50%. Although there is a 2.3% decrement of total consumption of biomass energy from 2014 to 2015 due to the decrease of wood consumption, there’s still a large potential for the bioenergy technology growth.
Table I. Total consumption source of renewable energy. Unit: Trillion btu [1]
Biomass refers to the biodegradable wastes and non-fossilized organic materials originating from plants, animals and micro-organisms derived from biological sources. [2] Currently, research in biomass energies can be divided into two major parts. The first part if the
These alternatives can be helpful in reducing carbon emissions while ensuring the energy independence . These sources are wind ,solar ,geothermal, hydro, nuclear and renewable bio fuels. Some of these sources are renewable , meaning they can be replenished, while others like nuclear, are non-renewable, yet are clean sources of energy. For better sustainability , society continues to explore the challenges of these energy options to help implement the necessary changes for an environmentally friendly and energy independent future.
One of many possible renewable sources of energy is biomass. Biomass energy is the power that is contained within plant and animals.
Fossil fuel plays leading role in upsetting environmental, economical and climate protection. Our earth is at catastrophic risk by the exploitation of fossil fuels. Therefore, pressure is on to find viable alternatives for energy to bring a stable, safe and clean revolution. In that case, bio-fuels make an attractive alternative for energy than fossil fuels. Various provocative questions need discussion that what are the attractive differences between both the fuels? Why fossil fuel dependence is to be actually minimized? What is the scope of bio-fuel for a safer world? How will bio-fuel benefit economically? Above all, It will be conferred that why bio-fuels are better than fossil fuels.
Many people have been contemplating about which energy source would be the best to use, but a proper decision hasn't been made. Every energy source has their own benefits which contribute to a healthier environment, but with every benefit, there is a drawback. Not every single energy source is available everywhere. Solar panels would be inefficient in a constantly cloudy area, and a wind mill would be incompetent in stagnant air, as a hydroelectric dam would be incapable of anything in a desert. One peg couldn't sustain every peg hole at one time. Transporting the electrical energy would cost more money, which could become a disadvantage over time as the generators that transform the energy already are costly. Even though a great deal of time and effort have been put into thinking which energy source is better overall, the answer is still unknown since everything comes with it's own problems, so I have chosen the ones that I believe are more efficient with nature and costs.
Currently in the U.S. we rely on non-renewable sources to produce our energy such as oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy. Although these methods do well producing energy, they also have large down falls environmental, economically, and in other ways that fail to show a promising future. This makes it necessary that we adapt alternative renewable energy methods that do not have these effects, and can insure a promising future.
Biomass is the use of organic matter to make electricity. Organic matter such as trees and plants are burned and heat water to create steam. The steam created from boiling water is used to turn turbines to create electricity. Biomass can also be used to create Methane which is used to create even more electricity.
The Biomass energy is an organic matter that is used by photosynthesis. This is used to generate energy and the most common energy is coming from the wood of the trees, corn, municipal solid waste, and sugarcane. The biomass is used to create ethanol, biodiesel, bio oil and biogas. This in turns create electricity with steam turbines and gasifies to produce heat. The advantage of using the biomass over the fossil fuel is that biomass is a renewable carbon source, zero net carbon dioxide emissions, lower methane, sulfate, and hydrocarbon emissions, and the most important is no dependence on foreign oil. Another is the geothermal energy, in which it uses the heat from the earth to warm things up. The common source is cost effective, reliable, and environmentally friendly. The main sources of uses are to heat homes, greenhouse, industrial process heating mineral recovery, fisheries and also mitigate global warnings. Geothermal energy is more valuable than the fossil fuels because it is an inexhaustible energy source, lot less emissions in the atmosphere, more efficient than solar energy, work under any kinds of weather conditions. The fossil fuels are irreplaceable, create massive environmental pollution and are also causes the major factor of the global warming and the ozone layer depletion. Also the Biomass and the Geothermal are very inexpensive compare to the fossil fuels by almost 50 percent.
The diversification in terms of sustainable energy and the utilization renewable energy options in various practical uses have become one of the most significant factors as a substitutable source for oil and gas. In addition, it could be a viable solution for environmental problems. Omubo-Pepple et al. (2009) believe that the effective solution for environmental degradation, resulted from the use of fossil fuels which caused some dangerous problems such as acid rain, green house effect and ozone layer depletion, is to increase in renewable energy options uses. Indeed, some countries such as United States, Germany, Spain and Japan are progressively undergoing transition from hydrocarbon-based economy to one based on sustainable forms
Solar panels, hydropower, and wind turbines are all well-known renewable resources. However, one of the most prevalent sources for energy is often overlooked. Biomass is a renewable and sustainable energy resource that uses organic materials to generate electricity. ("Biomass Power Association.")
Biomass has become one of the most commonly used renewable sources of energy in the last two decades. Many of the biomass fuels used today come in the form of wood products, dried vegetation, crop residues, and aquatic plants. It is such a widely utilized source of energy, probably due to its low cost and indigenous nature, that it accounts for almost 14% of the world 's total energy supply and as much as 35% in developing countries, mostly for cooking and heating. The wood from trees is most common biomass used for energy. It has been used by humans for producing energy for heating and cooking for a very long time. Biomass cannot replace our current dependence on coal, oil, and natural gas, but it can complement other renewables such as solar and wind energy. To converted biomass into usable energy in ways that are more efficient, less polluting, and at least as economical, technological innovations will be needed. Gasification is considered as a key technology for the use of biomass. In order to promote this technology in the future, advanced, cost effective, and highly efficient gasification processes and systems are required. Generally all different types of biomass can be converted by gasification into syngas mainly comprising hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane. . From this syngas, all kinds of energy or energy carriers such as heat, power, biofuels, hydrogen, biomethane and chemicals can be provided.
Biomass can be considered as a renewable energy resource, although burning biomass releases carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere similar to burning fossil fuel (Liu H. 2011). There is a significant difference in CO2 release between burning a fossil fuel and burning biomass. Burning a fossil fuel releases CO2 that has been locked up for millions of years in the ground, affecting the natural CO2 cycle and resulting in an increase in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Burning biomass simply return to the atmosphere the same amount of CO2 which was absorbed from the air via the photosynthesis process while the biomass plant was growing over a relatively short period of time (a few years to decade), and there is no net release of C02 into the atmosphere, i.e., CO2-neutral, if the cycle of growth and harvest is sustained. Therefore, biomass can consider as a renewable energy resource as shown in Figure 3.1 (Li u H. 2011). If the production and transportation of the biomass fuel involve the use of fossil fuel, there would become net release of CO2 with biomass combustion (Liu H. 2011)
Another "green" alternative energy source is biomass conversion. Two methods to obtain fuel from biomass, or organic material, are in use today: thermochemical conversion and biochemical conversion.
To answer the call of this crisis, the world may turn to other energy sources like biofuels, which are a relatively developed, yet innovative alternative to fossil fuels. Biofuel is a cleaner and renewable source of fuel that is able to combat fossil fuel price increases in relation to the limiting supply of fossil fuels with many existing and currently developing biofuel technologies to lower greenhouse gas emission and environmental damage. Biofuel technology derives from organic biomass which may include trees, grasses, plants and aquatic plants. From the photosynthesis of these biomass materials, plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into carbohydrates (simple sugars) and lignocellulose.
Alternative energy is defined as “energy generated in ways that do not deplete natural resources or harm the environment, especially by avoiding the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power.” It is one of the most commonly debated topics of this century. We are now coming to a time where energy can be created without harming the environment. There are many examples of ways we can get energy without harming the environment. Ways such as solar energy, wind energy, biomass electricity, hydroelectric energy and ocean energy, and geothermal energy. There are many pros and cons to alternative energy. Although it can take years for it to be something that the world can rely on, as a whole, altogether we can do it.
World population growth results increase in energy demand, together with growing global consciousness about the scarcity of the earth’s natural resources, has turned the attention of researchers into alternative renewable energy sources. Traditional energy sources are characterized as exhaustible and some of them, especially fossil fuels, have substantial impacts on the natural environment and are the main culprit of climate change. As a global solution, renewable energies play a key and unique role, since they are obtained from natural, regenerative sources that do not deplete; and they also cause minimal to no environmental problems, such as climate change, radioactive waste, acid rain and air pollution. The sources of renewable energy that have reached full commercial maturity are: solar, wind, tides and waves, rivers, geothermal energy, organic waste and energy stored biomass (Okure et al, 2006).