BIOMASS BY: JOHN CARSIA, AMANDA LESCOWITCH, LAUREN WACKLEY, & NICOLE REESE

WHAT IS BIOMASS ? Biomass is a biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms. The carbon used to construct biomass is absorbed from the atmosphere as carbon dioxide by plant life, using energy from the sun. Plants use and store carbon dioxide when they grow. When it burns or decomposes, it releases the CO2. It is renewable because we are going to carry on making waste products, plants and trees are going to die and the cycle will continue

HOW COULD BIOMASS BE USED ? Biomass provides a large amount of the world’s energy. Is mostly used for agricultural,heating, and cooking needs. Burning biomass in efficient stoves or over open flames is in many cases the only way to stay warm or cook a meal. Some way to turn biomass into electricity is direct combustion, co-firing, gasification, pyrolysis, and anaerobic digestion

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Burning wood creates smoke containing pollutants. The negative effects of biomass are far less than those created by other energy producers such as the burning of fossil fuels. Scientists are thinking of new ways to prevent any harmful effects of using biomass, so it could be used as our primary energy source in the future.

COST OF USING BIOMASS The cost of using biomass is comparable to other energy resources. Although it could be expensive to use biomass as the main energy source in the world, there are advantages such as less pollution. And when we could fully depend on biomass, we will no longer need fossil fuels, which will help the world economy as well as the environment.