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| Costa Pinto production plant | Krafla Geothermal Station |
Solid Biomass
The biomass refers to the massive amount of biological material on planet Earth. All the living plants, animals and insects; and all the remains of dead plants, animals and insects constitute the biomass. Therefore the biomass consists of the remains of these dead creatures, together with other chemicals such as carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen.
All the energy within the biomass is derived from our Sun. Solar energy is used by land-based living plant material and water-based phytoplankton in a process known as photosynthesis.
The biomass on planet Earth is based on the carbon cycle and it is a renewable energy source!
A common use of the the biomass material is as fuel. The energy contained in the biomass is burnt to generate heat for cooking or warmth.
The large scale farming of plants from which ethanol and vegetable oils are extracted to create agrofuels is a specific use of biomass material.
A modern source of biomass material is municipal solid waste (MSW). This is the non-recyclable waste from households in towns and cities. Few people in these heavily populated areas can recycle their own organic waste. This results in the need for the organised collecting and processing of this waste on a regular basis.
Costa Pinto ethynol production plant
This factory in Brazil processes the local sugarcane crop to produce both sugar and ethanol fuel and other types of alcohol.
Costa Pinto - Wikipedia - User: Mariordo - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
Arable Biomass Renewable Energy Power Station, Eggborough, North Yorkshire
The power station burns biomass from farmland across the north of England to generate gas to drive the turbines.
The station cost £28 million and produces 10 Megawatts of electricity which meets the needs of more than 33,500 people.
image © www.freefoto.com
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