What are The Environment Impacts of Biomass

What Are The Environment Impacts of Biomass. The biological material that derived from living organism or recently living organisms known as biomass. As a source of energy, biomass can be used directly to produce heat via combustion, beside that biomass can be converted into various forms of biofuel indirectly. Biomass to biofuel conversion can be achieved by chemical, thermal and biochemical methods.

Generally, wood remains the most important source of biomass energy, that include forest residues such as branches, tree stumps and dead trees, wood chips, yard clippings and also municipal solid waste. Biomass that include plant and animal matter could be convert into fibers, biofuel and other industrial chemicals. Biomass industry can be developed from various types of plants like miscanthus, switchgrass, corn, poplar, hemp, willow, sugarcane, sorghum, bamboo, and many variety tree species.

Biomass can be generated to another type of energy like biodiesel and ethanol as a transportation fuels or methane gas. Human waste, agricultural waste and rotting garbage release methane gas called biogas or landfill gas. The fermentation of crops like corn and sugar cane can produce ethanol as a transportation fuel. The other transportation fuel, Biodiesel can be produced from food products such as animal fat and vegetable oils. Also, the expert still research to produce cellulosic ethanol and liquids (BTLs) from biomass.

What Are The Environment Impacts of Biomass

What are the environment impact of biomass ? 

1. The Use of Water

2. Emissions to The Atmosphere

3. The Land Use 

4. The Life-Cycle of Global Warming Emissions

 

The Use of Water

Approximately, biomass power plants use same amount of water for cooling process like coal power plants, however the actual water consumption and withdrawals depends on the technology cooling process. For once-through cooling systems of biomass power plants that use water from nearby sources, the water circulation through the plants cooling system-discharge it-it range between 20,000 to 50,000 gallons with consumption of 300 gallons per MWH. The wet-recirculating cooling systems of biomass facility reuse cooling water and withdraw between 500 to 900 gallons per MWH and approximately consume 480 gallons per MWH.

Existing biomass plants approximately 25% use once through cooling technology and other 75% use wet recirculating technology. When withdrawn cooling water return to the source, the water is warmer than when water was withdrawn which has a negative impact on animal and plant life. As alltogether thermal plants, this impact should be closely monitored. Dry-cooling systems don’t consume or withdraw any water, however the tradeoffs to those water savings are higher prices and lower efficiencies, it means that more fuel is required per electricity unit.

The water is also used to produce any biomass feedstocks. Another energy crops vary in terms of how much water is needed. A type of perennial grass like Miscanthus requires a large amount of water, while other perennial grass like switchgrass generally requires much less of water.

Emissions to The Atmosphere

Utilize biomass as a fuel generate air pollution in the form of CO2, NOx, volatile organic compounds, particulates, CO and other pollutants at levels above from traditional fuel sources like natural gas and coal in some cases such as with cooking and indoor heating. Using wood biomass as a fuel can produce fewer particulate and another pollutants than direct heat applications or wildfires. The black carbon  as a pollutant that created by combustion of biomass, fossil fuels and biofuels is possibly the second largest global warming’s contributor.

Nitrogen oxides from biomass are higher than natural gas but lower than those from coal. It emissions causes smog or ground-level ozone, that can burn lung tissue and can make human more susceptible to bronchitis, asthma, and other diseases of chronic respiratory. Same with SO2, nitrogen oxide also contributes to harmful particulate matter and the acid rain. Also, biomass power plants emit carbon monoxide and high levels of particulates such as soot and ash. Recently technologies, like gasification systems or fluidized bed and electrostatic precipitators may help to reduce CO, NOx, and other particulate emissions which associated with biomass power.

The Land Use

Another impact from biomass power production is land use which is primarily driven by the type of feedstock also a energy crop or waste stream which is specifically grown for generate the electricity. Because waste streams are secondarily available as a result of other activity that could have otherwise occurred such as farming and logging, which is no marginal increase in land use. But, if that is not collected properly, using forest waste streams and agriculture for biomass power would lead to habitat and land degradation.

The best practices for removal and important safeguards are required to make sure that necessary crop residues are left behind to improve maintain nutrient levels, soil carbon storage and prevent the erosion. Also, harvesting of products of forest waste can be done sustainably and proper forest management practices have to be followed to make sure that forest remains healthy and the wildlife habitat is not destroyed.

Energy crops has many same environmental challenges as food crops, therefore the same sustainable agriculture principles apply such as integrated pest management, proper soil husbandry and crop rotation to avoid soil erosion. Large energy crops utilize less pesticides and fertilizer than typical food crops, and perennial grasses do not need annual planting and tilling. These crops could even be pros for farmers alternating the planting of food and energy crops could help to stabilize the soil.

 

The Life-Cycle of Global Warming Emissions

The global warming emissions associated with harvesting biomass feedstock, burning or gasifying the feedstock and transporting feedstock into the power plant. Combustion and transportation emissions are roughly same for all types of biomass. But the emissions from the biomass feedstock source are vary widely. Commonly, it thought that the biomass had zero global warming emissions because the growing biomass absorbed same quantity of carbon as the released quantity through combustion. 

Today, it is understood that the sources of biomass are associated with substantial global warming emissions. It is especially beneficial to use organic waste products for biomass energy. Whenever organic waste is disposed of in a landfill it will decomposes and releases methane (potent global warming gas). So, diverting these wastes to produce the electricity will reduces methane emissions and reduces landfill volume and.

Some harmful biomass practices and resources add net carbon to the atmosphere by directly or indirectly decreasing the overall quantity of carbon stored in soils and plants. Any practices like clearing forests, grasslands, savannas to grow energy crops and displacing food production for the bioenergy production that leads to clearing of carbon-rich ecosystems anywhere to grow food.

In the marginal resources of biomass, the impact of carbon depends on the circumstances. Example, when forests cut down or grasslands are plowed up to make way for switchgrass farm, it will be increase net carbon emissions. This is happen because forests and grasslands contain large stores of carbon also the total of carbon storage increases every year as the ecosystems mature. It could be a net increase in the emissions of global warming associated with planting switchgrass on productive land. On a wider level, as energy crops replace food crops, the food costs increases that gives farmers the incentive to clear more forests and grasslands to make way for their food production.  Meanwhile plants such as switchgrass could have zero or even net negative emissions if they are planted in abandoned or degraded agricultural land. Research has found that the switchgrass, if planted in diverse mixtures with other perennial legumes and grasses can help to store carbon in the degraded soils.

Because of all of these factors, there is wide range for estimates the lifecycle global warming emissions of biomass energy. Most estimates, that excluding global warming emissions from land use changes are between 0.04 to 0.2 pounds of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour. So the estimates for natural gas-generated electricity of life cycle global warming emissions are between 0.6 and 2 pounds of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt-hour and the estimates for coal-generated electricity are 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt-hour.

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