Human beings began the use of biomass for energy when our ancestors have learned about fire and how to use it particularly in cooking food. Biomass is any natural thing that has been grown or has lived, excluding fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas and many more. Biomass can be in the form of wood, straw, biological wastes, waste paper, organic wastes from food processing, livestock farming and so many others. Biomass can be utilized to produce energy. These can be burned, agitated and absorbed to provide energy. All of these contain solar energy which combined into their carbon chemistry while they were still living. And that energy can be liberated for human beings’ use without adding up to the carbon dioxide burden (global warming problem) on our planet as long as we continuously plant, breed, and grow sources of biological mass or biomass.
Moreover, biomass can be grown as a crop for fuel use. If it has to be grown, it needs to be able to grow fast with little watering or fertilizer requirement and it has to be of high calorific value. However, it is not a wise idea to rely from these sources to produce biomass for fuel use because most lands are used for food productions. An increase in biomass production will mean decrease in food production. There has to be some other sources where we can obtain biological mass. Biomass can come in the form of biological wastes. Since the whole world produces so many wastes which we even finding it hard to properly dispose off, why not use it for fuel use to make it useful.
Nowadays, people are being trained to separate their wastes into biodegradable and non-biodegradable. Biomass can be segregated at source by the public by disseminating information through several mediums such as advertisements in televisions, announcements in newspapers and the like. Garbage collections have now a separate collection for biological wastes, including food wastes. Food wastes have the highest heat produce when burnt or digested, and they comprise between 15% and 25% of all household (domestic) waste by weight.
Unlike using fossil fuels to produce energy, biomass is a much less harmful to mankind and to our precious earth. Even if biomass fuels are readily available, people all over the world are hesitant to use it especially that most of it came from the biological wastes of the whole world. They feel that it is not safe for mankind and the earth. They may have adverse effects on our environment but if we will compare it with massive use of fossil fuels, the adverse effects of using biomass fuel are much less than that of using fossil fuels.
Our forefathers have been using biomass for energy when they learned bout fire and use it for their cooking. Biological mass are materials that has been grown or has lived. Biomass can take the form of wood, straw, biological wastes, waste paper, organic wastes from food processing, to name a few. Biomass can be used to produce energy. When these materials are burned, they produce energy. Fire converts biological mass into heat.
What are the pros and cons of using biomass? Since biomass take the form of biological wastes, and the whole world produces so many biological wastes, these wastes can be used and burned to obtain biomass energy. If we use biomass to produce energy, that is, biological wastes to produce energy, we can lessen to a great amount all our garbage that has to go to our landfills. By recycling through use of biological wastes to produce biomass energy, we can help in the preservation of our nature. At the same time, we can also help our economy because we will not have to buy more fuels to operate our machineries and the like because we can make use of the many available biological wastes as a source for biomass and in turn to produce energy.
However, to comprehend the problems of biological mass as a form of energy, one needs to know the biomass cycle that exists on the planet. To simplify, the biomass cycle controls the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. The biomass, basically in the form of plants, takes in carbon to live and grow and the living creatures of earth efficiently act as a sponge for carbon. However, the efficiency of this sponge effects has limited capacity. It can only absorb carbon to some extent at a time. When there is so much carbon in the atmosphere, consequently, heat will be trapped thus creating global warming which has now being felt on all parts of the world. Even if burning of biological mass brings about a much smaller extent of carbon gases over a short period of time, we still are not cutting down or lessening our carbon emissions to the atmosphere. With the global warming being obviously felt now in almost all parts of the world, what we need is reduction of emissions of carbon gases.
But if we will compare biomass with fossil fuels as to which is a better energy source, biomass is still a better choice. Fossil fuels emit more carbon gases than the biomass fuels. Furthermore, with the growing amount of garbage the world has accumulated everyday, if we will use biomass to produce energy this will greatly decrease the amount of trash to be thrown into our landfills. In this way, we still help preserve our environment.
