Biomass has been used as an energy source for centuries. Unfortunately though, starting fires to keep warm and for boiling our water is not going to help today’s energy needs. Today’s energy demands are more complex and need a more sophisticated approach than just building a bonfire. Even still, those chunks of trees can be just as useful today in producing our electricity as coal, petroleum, natural gas or any other energy source. Let’s talk about how it can work.
Let’s put our focus in the comparison of biomass products versus traditional fossil fuels. Today we rely heavily on fossil fuels for electricity production mostly due to the fact that it has been the most cost effective source of energy. Why is it cost effective? Well, the answers to that question are many, but there is one of great importance: The energy per unit volume in fossil fuels is very high! Coal has nearly twice as much energy per kilogram and natural gas has nearly 7 times more energy in 1 cubic meter than 1 kg of firewood. That means you have to transport a lot more ‘firewood’ to get the same amount of energy output.
This leads to the fact that there will be a lot more transportation and storage costs for biomass compared to other energy sources because you need to use such a large quantity of it. This has made biomass less appealing and is a large part of why it is not used as much as traditional fossil fuels for electricity production. This is not the sad ending of the biomass story and where the book gets closed. On the other hand, we ask ourselves: What does biomass have going for it? The answer is that a) it is renewable b) it is very abundant in many areas and c) it’s free!
Okay not completely free. But the truth is that in many places like my home state of Florida, there is a ton of biomass waste produced by tree service contractors, municipalities, forestry operations, and land development operations. Unfortunately, a lot of this material gets buried, is burned on site, or taken to incinerators at nearby facilities. I worked in the tree care industry for 10 years and have become very aware of the hassle and cost of hauling tree debris and paying disposal fees. The cool thing about biomass plants is that they can be built on a smaller scale on a more local level. It has been my understanding that the costs for transporting biomass for energy purposes increases greatly after about 75 miles. What that means is that we can build biomass plants that pull in biomass material in a radius of 75 miles around itself. This will keep the cost of transportation down, and there will be a steady flow of biomass into these plants on day one. All of these contractors will gladly dump for free compared to paying dump fees at the local landfill.
Now I know that many places utilize wood waste more effectively and there are other markets that rely on wood waste such as mulching operations. So in the future I recognize that there may come a time where the local biomass plant may need to purchase this same material simply due to supply and demand. In the meantime, there is simply way to much material being discarded to ignore its potential.
So even though biomass is a bulky material that has not been cost effective compared to traditional sources, the truth is that we can overcome this barrier with a little bit of common sense. In places like Florida, there is so much tonnage of material produced everyday just to keep the trees from growing over roofs, into power lines, roadways and everything else. Building smaller, more localized biomass plants could be an excellent option for keeping costs down and utilizing a readily available energy source.
-Josh
Understanding Biomass 