Biomass

Natural
Energy

Biomass Basics
Biomass

Renewable Energy from Plants

and Animals

Types of Biomass

Biomass Means
Biomass

is organic material made from

plants and animals (microorganisms).
Biomass contains stored energy from the
sun.Plants absorb the sun's energy in a
process called photosynthesis. The
chemical energy in plants gets passed on to
animals and people that eat them.

Biomass
Biomass

is a renewable energy source

because we can always grow more trees and
crops, and waste will always exist. Some
examples of biomass fuels are wood, crops,
manure, and some garbage.

Converting Biomass in
other Types of Energy.
Burning

biomass is not the only way to release its energy.

Biomass can be converted to other useable forms of
energy, such as methane gas or transportation fuels, such
as ethanol and biodiesel.
Methane gas is the main ingredient of natural gas. Smelly
stuff, like rotting garbage, and agricultural and human
waste, release methane gas also called "landfill gas" or
"biogas."
Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to
produce ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel,
can be produced from left-over food products like
vegetable oils and animal fats.

How to Form Biomass?

When

burned, the chemical energy in

biomass is released as heat. If you have a
fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a
biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can is
burned to produce steam for making
electricity, or to provide heat to industries
and homes.

How much biomass is used for

fuel?
Biomass

fuels provided about 4% of the

energy used in the United States in 2011.
Of this, about 45% was from wood and
wood-derived biomass, 44% from biofuels
(mainly ethanol), and about 11% from
municipal waste. Researchers are trying to
develop ways to burn more biomass and
less fossil fuel. Using biomass for energy
may cut back on waste and greenhouse
gas emissions.

Biofuels
Biofuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol,
are widely derived from biomass (plants and
other organic waste) and provide an
attractive alternative to fossil fuels.
These fuels have many different applications.
In rural areas they can power mechanized
milling or small scale electrification systems.
In the cities, biofuels are especially used in
the transport sector adding to the reduction
of greenhouse gas emissions.

Biomass
Biomass

is biological material from living, or

recently living organisms, most often
referring to plants or plant-derived materials.
[1] As a renewable energy source, biomass
can either be used directly, or indirectly -once or converted into another type of
energy product such as biofuel. Biomass can
be converted to energy in three ways:
thermal conversion, chemical conversion,
and biochemical conversion.

Biomass

Biomass mass derived energy also holds the promise of

reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a significant
contributor to global warming, carbon dioxide acts as a
greenhouse gas by trapping heat absorbed by the earth
from the sun. Although the burning of biomass energy
releases as much carbon dioxide as fossil fuels, biomass
burning does not release new carbon into the
atmosphere while burning fossil fuels does. [8] This is
because carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels was
carbon that was fixated via photosynthesis millions of
years ago that had been locked in the hydrocarbons of
fossil fuels. [9]

Biochemical Conversion
A

microbial electrolysis cell can be used to directly make hydrogen gas from
plant matter
As biomass is a natural material, many highly efficient biochemical processes
have developed in nature to break down the molecules of which biomass is
composed, and many of these biochemical conversion processes can be
harnessed.
Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other
micro-organisms to break down biomass. In most cases micro-organisms are
used to perform the conversion process: anaerobic digestion, fermentation
and composting. Other chemical processes such as converting straight and
waste vegetable oils into biodiesel is transesterification.[34] Another way of
breaking down biomass is by breaking down the carbohydrates and simple
sugars to make alcohol. However, this process has not been perfected yet.
Scientists are still researching the effects of converting biomass

Pictures of Biomass

Pictures of Biomass
Progress

Biography
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