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__ BioMass __


 * **** What is Biomass? **

﻿ Biomass, a renewable resource, is mainly biological material from living or non-living things, like wood, waste, gas(hydrogen), alcoholic fuels etc. Biomass is commonly plant material used to generate power and electricity.Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic materials such as fossil fuels which have been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.

** How It Works? ** **﻿﻿ **The most common way to capture the energy from biomass was to burn it to make heat. Since the industrial revolution this biomass fired heat has produced steam power, and more recently this biomass fired steam power has been used to generate electricity. Advances in recent years ha﻿ve shown that there are even more efficient and cleaner ways to use biomass. It can be converted into liquid fuels, for example, or “cooked” in a process called "gasification" to produce combustible gases, which reduces various kinds of emissions from biomass combustion. The various ways of converting biomass into biopower are :-

The oldest and most common way of converting biomass to electricity is to burn it to produce steam, which turns a turbine that produces electricity. The problems with direct combustion of biomass are that much of the energy is wasted and that it can cause some pollution if it is not carefully controlled. Direct combustion can be done in a plant using solely biomass (a “dedicated plant”) or in a plant made to burn another fuel, usually coal.
 * Direct combustion **

An approach that may increase the use of biomass energy in the short term is to mix it with coal and burn it at a power plant designed for coal—a process known as “co-firing.” Through gasification, biomass can also be co-fired at natural gas-powered plants. The benefits associated with biomass co-firing can include lower operating costs, reductions of harmful emissions like sulfur and mercury, greater energy security and, with the use of beneficial biomass, lower carbon emissions.
 * Co-firing **

Micro-organisms break down biomass to produce methane and carbon dioxide. This can occur in a carefully controlled way in anaerobic digesters used to process sewage or animal manure. Related processes happen in a less-controlled manner in landfills, as biomass in the garbage breaks down. A portion of this methane can be captured and burned for heat and power.
 * Anaerobic digestion**


 * Example From The Real World **
 * ﻿ **In the United States, we already get over 50 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from biomass, providing nearly 1.5 percent of our nation's total electric sales. Biomass was the largest source of renewable electricity in the U.S. until 2009, when it was overtaken by wind energy. Biopower accounted for more than 35 percent of total net renewable generation in 2009, excluding conventional hydroelectric generation.

 **Figures**
 * Renewable Resource || Electric Generation Capacity Potential (in gigawatts) || Electric Generation (billion kilowatt-hours) || Renewable Electricity Gnereation as % of 2007 Electricity Use ||
 * Energy Crops || 83 || 584 || 14% ||
 * Agricultural Residues || 114 || 801 || 19% ||
 * Forest Residues || 33 || 231 || 6% ||
 * Urban Residues || 15 || 104 || 3% ||
 * Landfill Gas || 2.6 || 19 || 0.4% ||
 * Total || 248 || 1,739 || 42% ||

** ﻿ ﻿ ﻿ **Like all energy sources, biomass has environmental impacts and risks. The main impacts and risks from biomass are sustainability of the resource use, air quality and carbon emissions.
 * ** Environment **

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Beneficial **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As mentioned previously, there is considerable consensus among leading scientists that there are biomass resources that are clearly beneficial in their potential to reduce net carbon emissions. These beneficial resources exist in substantial supplies and can form the basis of increasing production of biopower and biofuels.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Harmful ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In contrast to these beneficial biomass resources, scientists generally agree that harmful biomass resources and practices include clearing forests, savannas or grasslands to grow energy crops, and displacing food production for bioenergy production that ultimately leads to the clearing of carbon-rich ecosystems elsewhere to grow food. ||