What Do We Mean By Biomass ?

With conventional sources of energy getting depleted, humanity is increasingly turning towards renewable forms of energy. Renewable energy sources are considered as being more eco-friendly when compared to conventional forms of energy, this has made this form of energy the preferred choice for environmentalists.

Options that are available in form alternative energy sources include hydroelectric power, wind energy, solar energy and biomass energy. This article focuses mainly on the biomass definition for kids and the various aspects that pertain to biomass.

What is biomass?

Biomass energy can be described as energy obtained through the processing of biological matter that is alive or died recently. Energy from biomass products is usually obtained through processing of recently living matter or the waste products produced by living matter.
It is important to note that, fossil fuels such as coal, gas and petroleum are not considered as being biomass in nature. Fossil fuels are created from natural products ( same as biomass). However, fossil fuels take millions of years to be created hence do not qualify in the category of biomass: biomass is made from recently dead biological matter.

Sources of biomass:

Biomass is normally available in liquid, solid and gaseous form.
Solid form- in this form, biomass is in form of combustible material such as firewood and charcoal. Combustible waste can also be classified as biomass.
Liquid form- a perfect example of biomass in its liquid form is ethanol. Ethanol can be obtained through fermentation of corn crops and sugarcane.
Gases from- methane gas produced by decomposing landfills is an example of biomass in its gaseous form. Biogas from animal waste especially methane gas from pig and cattle farms, also falls under this category.

Advantages of using biomass:

There are many advantages associated with the use of biomass as a source of energy. Some of these advantages include.

It’s renewable:
Biomass is renewable in nature and hence has all the positive attributes associated with renewable energy and the fact that we are not depleting energy sources that cannot be easily replaced.

Cost-effective and easily available:
Biomass is a cheap and easily available source of energy. This can be attributed to the fact that biomass can be generated from locally available plant and waste materials and does not require extensive processing to produce energy. This makes it one of the cheapest forms of energy.

Helps in waste management:
The use of biomass as a source of fuel helps in solid waste management. Incineration of solid waste to produce energy eliminates waste from the environment resulting in cleaner surroundings.

Clean energy:
Biomass briquettes are generally used in the production of electricity. Electricity produced through burning of these briquettes is generally cleaner when compared to the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity.

Disadvantages of biomass:

Biomass has some disadvantages associated with its use. These include…
Ozone layer damage
Gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emitted during the combustion of biomass can damage the ozone layer.

Global warming:
Although biomass can produce more than 10 times the amount of energy produced by other renewable energy sources, it also produces significant amounts of gases and contributes to global warming.

How Biomass energy is produced

Biomass is produced biologically from living material or previously living matter. Biomass energy is renewable and an alternative source of power. It has multiple uses, can either be converted to another form of energy called  Biofuel or used directly.

The actual production of biomass energy has been a mystery to many people as the usage becomes more and more popular among the general population. One of the  reasons  why the fuel has managed to attract a such interest  is because of its nature in addressing the impacts of the dreaded global warming. What scientists have been doing of late is to trying to maximize on its usage by choosing the best plant species for the job.

Before looking at the initial production, the type of harnessing required is highly affected by the form in which the energy is needed as well as the process of conversion. Converting biomass into electricity involves either using plants specifically to convert to bio-fuel, or using various organic materials such as waste material that can be converted to produce gas.

The most common of these materials would include wood chips, animal manure, trees, agricultural crops, pulp sledges and other plants rich in carbon fuel. There are a number of ways to completely achieve biomass fuel, they include; producing steam and heat by burning material, it can be converted into gas, fuel oil, methane, ethane, ethanol and biodiesel which can be then converted to another form applicable to power vehicles and other industrial machinery.

Biomass Fuel – A Renewable Resource:

The search for an alternative fuel has been made extremely crucial by the rising oil and fuel prices, decline in the fossil fuel resources and more strongly, the increase in the awareness of environmental conservation.

The process of extracting fuel from biomass involves the treatment of the extract from hemicelluloses (a by-product from common wood processing industries) by the Huber machine. The process of extraction is a four step process that involves the dehydration of cellulose, aldol condensation, hydrolysis of acid and high temperature hydroxylation.

But how can you get biomass? Well, as for the process of obtaining a reliably high quality biomass, it involves the drying up of an organism to get rid of water. This is because biomass refers to the accurate measured weight of a living organism. After the water is removed, the true weight of the organism is determined.

Conversion of biomass to electricity would involve a number of processes. The first one is the thermal conversion, followed by the chemical conversion and finally, the biochemical conversion. Although we have partially visited some of them, it is equally important to give each one of them a detailed closer look.

1. Biochemical Conversion

This process involves the use of bacteria, enzymes and microorganisms to completely breakdown the biomass matter. The processes involved would include; composting, fermentation and anaerobic digestion.

However also featured in this category, another process can also be applied going by the name transesterification which involves the conversion of vegetable waste into a more sophisticated form of biodiesel. Alcohol can also be made from simple sugars and carbohydrates as an alternative way of breaking down biomass using the biochemical method to generate power.

2. Thermal Conversion

Into another form, the method involves the conversion of biomass by heat as the only source of energy. But where there is a high growth of plants rich in carbon, the dendrothermal method of converting biomass into fuel wood is applied.

Additionally, there are other more experimental but rather uncommon thermal processes that are equally helpful when it comes to HTU, hydrothermal upgrading. Thermal conversion would involve the combination of power, cofiring and heat to achieve a successful conversion of biomass into a more reliable alternative source of heat.

3. The Chemical Conversion

So as to produce a fuel that is significantly applicable in virtually most places, the chemical conversion would involve a number of processes. Most of these chemical processes would involve the production of hydrocarbons like the methane, ethanol, methanol and ethylene which are a very high source of hydrogen and carbon.

Other chemical processes would involve the synthesis of Fischer Tropsch. The first process would involve the gasification which is done at an atmospheric pressure and although it is a very efficient, it poses a very great environmental and human risk.

For more information about the pictorial representation of the process, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass.  All in all, its our own responsibility to make sure we embrace the alternative sources of energy that are more efficient, admittedly reliable and less prone to having a significant impact on global warming for the interest of future generations. It may be that we wish to drastically reduce our carbon footprint, by the use of Biomass energy – how it is produced turns out to have many answers however!

Due to its bulky nature, the set up of biomass power stations requires a lot of resources in terms of space and finances. This makes the set up process to be more expensive.
The above overview on the biomass definition for young students and is sure to give them a good basic understanding on biomass alternative energy sources.