What is Biomass? Biomass energy is energy from plants and plant-derived materials—and has been in use since people began burning wood to cook food and keep warm. Biomass sources include food crops, grassy and woody plants, residues from agriculture or forestry, organic components of municipal and industrial wastes and animal waste such as cow manure and chicken litter. Fundamentally, biomass is stored solar energy that man can convert to electricity or fuel. By utilising gasification to extract this energy, we are an environmentally responsible provider of waste to energy technology.
Why Biomass? Biomass is an attractive energy source for a number of reasons. First, it is a renewable energy source. Biomass is also more evenly distributed over the earth's surface than fossil fuel energy sources, and may be harnessed using more cost effective technologies. It provides us the opportunity to be more energy self-sufficient. It helps to reduce climate change (global warming).
Using biomass to create energy has positive environmental implications. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas. Plants collect and store carbon dioxide to aid in the photosynthesis process. As plants or other matter decompose, or natural fires occur, CO2 is released. Before the use of fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide cycle was stable; the same amount that was released was sequestered, but it has since been disrupted. In the past 150 years, the period since the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen from around 150 ppm to 330 ppm, and are expected to double before 2050!
Don't Waste Your Waste- What Do You Pay To Throw Fuel Away? Biomass offers many environmental benefits but perhaps the most appealing part is the savings that biomass energy can offer your company. Using biomass fuels you will be able to diminish or remove your dependence on fossil fuels as well as eliminate expensive waste streams. By eliminating waste at its source and converting it into energy using environmentally friendly gasification technology, this technology provides value at multiple levels, as well as promoting responsible utilisation of the earth's natural resources.
To produce 3MW of electricity using waste wood (grade 2) – 62,000 tonnes per year is required. An acceptable moisture content of fuel between 0 and 120% can be used. A loss in output will be achieved once moisture exceeds 30%. Fuel recipes will be determined and programmed to maximise calorific values.
