Biomass

Agriculture crop residues include biomass, primarily stalks and leaves, not harvested or removed from the fields in commercial use. Examples include Corn Stover (stalks, leaves, husks and cobs), wheat straw, and rice straw.

Forestry residues include biomass not harvested or removed from logging sites in commercial hardwood and softwood stands as well as material resulting from forest management operations such as pre-commercial thinning and removal of dead and dying trees.

Residential, commercial, and institutional post-consumer wastes contain a significant proportion of plant derived organic material that constitute a renewable energy resource. Waste paper, cardboard, wood waste and yard wastes are examples of biomass resources in municipal wastes.

Farms and animal processing operations create animal wastes that constitute a complex source of organic materials with environmental consequences.

Advantages
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Theoretically inexhaustible fuel source When direct combustion of plant mass is not used to generate energy (i.e. fermentation, pyrolysis, etc. are used instead), there is minimal environmental impact

Alcohols and other fuels produced by biomass are efficient, viable, and relatively cleanburning

Available throughout the world

Disadvantages  Could contribute a great deal to global warming and particulate pollution if directly burned  Still an expensive source, both in terms of producing the biomass and converting it to alcohols  On a small scale there is most likely a net loss of energy--energy must be put in to grow the plant mass Uses 70% of all biomass in the world is used in the residential sector, while 14% is used in industry and 11% is transformed into electricity, heat, or another energy carrier such as liquid fuel or biogas. Biomass for electricity generation has a total usage in volume higher in the USA than in the whole of

Europe combi ed, but consumption for heating is considerabl lower. he use of biomass for both electricit generation and heat has tripled in the last 13 years in the 15 EU countries, growing from 1,218 ktoe to 5,341 ktoe for electricity and from 2,186 ktoe to 5,341 ktoe for heat. he majority of developing countries are located in warmer regions, and the use of biomass heat, other than for cooking and traditional heating, is limited to the supply of process heat in industry.

In rural areas, biomass fuels are mainly collected by users, whereas in urban areas they are mostly marketed after collection by urban authorities or their agents. Urban use is based on the collection and processing of large quantities of waste, mainly by municipal authorities for processing in central plants and distribution by commercial means.

Capacity around the world