Biomass Energy

• BIOMASS is an energy resource comprised of the bodies or byproducts of living things.
  • Examples include wood, leaves, algae and even poop.

• To release the energy from the mass of living things, we typically burn them.
• Burning logs in a campfire to cook marshmallows uses biomass energy.
• In large scale, we can put biomass into large furnaces to heat water into steam that spins turbines to generate electricity.

• Every living things produces a lot of mass every day!
• Every plant on earth will eventually die and the non-edible parts of the plant can be easily burned for energy!
• All animals make poop which can also be burned as an energy source.

• By using animal waste and plant products for energy, we slow the rate that our landfills are used.

• Waste from cows, pigs and chickens often winds up polluting waterways and killing fish.
• Burning this waste to make electricity keeps water ways poop free and provides more income for farmers!

• Not only is petroleum refined into fuels for transportation, it is also the only material we use to make plastics.
• Plants and algae can be made into Biofuels that work in car engines.

• Everything creates air pollution when it is burned, so biomass reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, but doesn’t change the general environmental impact.

• While there is currently a lot of biomass sitting around that could produce energy, it is not an indefinite supply.
• Once the biomass that is sitting around is used, we’ll be stuck with a set amount of byproducts from living things produced each year.

• If we decide to grow plants specifically to make biofuels or biomass, we would divert water from ecosystems or food supplies.
• In a worst case scenario, companies might chose to grow fuel crops instead of food leading to starvation..

Biomass accounts for 4.8% of all energy consumed in US

US produces and consumes the most biomass energy in the world.

• The majority of Ethiopia’s 135 million people live in rural communities using plant and animal waste for heat and cooking.
• While the US may produce more total biomass energy, Ethiopia gets the highest proportion of their energy from biomass!

• Biomass is one of the least used forms of energy due to its low ICARE score.
• Other than being a replacement for fossil fuels, it still creates a ton of CO₂ when its burned and requires a lot of CO₂ heavy transportation infrastructure to get all the trash to generating stations.