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Atlantis Brief
Renewable biomass should be clearly distinguished from clean energy. It may be useful as it will not run out in the near future but still has many
environmental issues with air pollution and land use
- Biomass is plant or animal material used for energy production; energy crops, wood or forest residues, waste from food crops, etc.
- Biofuels are significantly less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels
- Using biofuels can reduce the amount of waste in landfills
- Burning biomass emits large amounts of pollutants, just like burning other solid fuels such as coal
- When comparing biomass plants to natural gas plants, we see that they can emit even larger amounts of harmful air pollutants
- Yale Study: 90% of all wood removals from African forests are estimated to be used for wood fuel
Renewable biomass has drawbacks but could you be a useful addition to replacing fossil fuels in the short term until clean energy has expanded enough
to cover the worlds full energy requirements. Biomass however should not be seen as a long term solution to our energy needs
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Indepth Study
An Introduction
The term 'Renewable energy' is used to describe energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale.
Such as plants, wood and waste that grow or are produced at the same speed at which we use it.
In recent years governments and energy producers have often grouped together clean energy; solar, wind, hydro, etc. under the 'renewables' tag, as they
also will not run out in the foreseeable future. |
Renewable Energy vs. Clean Energy
Although these two terms are often lumped together, we actually need to start distinguishing between them. Just because an energy source is renewable,
doesn’t mean it’s good for the environment. Bioenergy sources, for example, may be renewable, but are in fact very harmful to the environment.
In the end, although renewables are a step up from fossil fuels, it is still a much better option to invest in true clean energy.
Read more about sources of
true clean energy
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| Truly clean energy sources compared to renewable pollution creating energy sources |
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Biomass
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| Sources of Biomass |
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Biomass is plant or animal material used for energy production. It can be purposely grown energy crops, wood or forest residues, waste from food
crops, horticulture, food processing, animal residues, or human waste.
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For much of the last century, biofuels (derived from biomass) have been the 4th most common source of energy. Currently, they make up about 10% of
the total primary energy supply
- The different types of biomass are widely available as a renewable source of energy
- They are significantly less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels
- They can reduce the amount of waste in landfills
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| Total primary energy supply (TPES) by source, World 1990-2017: International Energy Agency [1] |
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Burning biomass emits large amounts of pollutants, just like burning other solid fuels such as coal. Burning organic material emits particulate
matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), lead, mercury, and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
When comparing biomass plants to natural gas plants, we see that they can emit even larger amounts of harmful air pollutants.
When we combine the above mentioned air pollution with accidents related to energy production, biomass has the 3rd highest death rate behind coal (brown and black) and oil |
Hydrogen
According to Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, approximately 90% of all wood removals from African forests are estimated to be used
for wood fuel, largely for home cooking [4]. In developing countries where biomass is a
big fuel source, deforestation can devastate local wildlife and lead to extinction of entire species.
This table, based on various studies, shows water footprints for different fuel sources. As you can see, even when averaged across different countries,
biomass production consumes enormous amounts of water compared to other energy sources. In many cases, more water is required for biomass energy
production than even for hydropower itself!
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| The water footprint of energy from biomass: a quantitative assessment and consequences of an increasing share of bio-energy in energy supply: Ecological economics. 2009 [5] |
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Data Sources
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