Biomass

Biomass offers Maryland a tremendous opportunity to use domestic and sustainable resources to provide its fuel, power, and chemical needs from plants and plant-derived materials.

Biofuels and Biodiesel

The most commonly known forms of biomass. A biofuel is a biomass that has been converted to liquid fuel. Most people are already using biofuel in the form of ethanol, which is mostly used as blending agent with gasoline to increase octane and cut down carbon monoxide and other smog-causing emissions.

Every community has the raw materials for Biomass--and could someday produce its own bio-powered energy.

Biodiesel is made by combining alcohol with vegetable oil, animal fat, or recycled cooking grease. It can be used as an additive to reduce vehicle emissions or in its pure form as a renewable alternative fuel for diesel engines.

Biopower Generally speaking, biopower refers to using biomass to generate electricity. In some biomass industries, the spent steam from the power plant is also used for manufacturing processes or to heat buildings. Such combined heat and power systems greatly increase overall energy efficiency.

• Co-firing refers to mixing biomass with fossil fuels in conventional power plants. Coal-fired power plants can use co-firing systems to significantly reduce emissions, especially sulfur dioxide emissions.
• Gasification uses high temperatures and a lack of oxygen to convert biomass into synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The synthesis gas, or "syngas," can then be chemically converted into other fuels or products, burned in a conventional boiler, or used instead of natural gas in a gas turbine.

Bioproducts

Fossil fuels are used by the petro-chemical industry to make a number of everyday and household products. But many of these products can be made from biomass. It’s simply a matter of converting the right source of biomass into the right chemicals for making plastics and other products that typically are made from petroleum.

Bioproducts that can be made from sugar-based biomass sources include antifreeze, plastics, glues, artificial sweeteners, and gel for toothpaste. Bioproducts that can be made from a syngas of carbon monoxide and hydrogen include plastics and acids—also used to make photographic films, textiles, and synthetic fabrics. Wood adhesives, molded plastic, and foam insulation can also be made from renewable biomass sources.

Benefits

• Any community, anywhere, produces raw biomass materials and can harness this energy source
• Based on available materials and needs, any locality could design a self-sufficient and sustainable energy system from its own source material
• Biomass is cost-effective, carbon-neutral, and yields a number of incidental but significant environmental improvements as it is implemented.

Considerations

• Biomass requires significant investment to further develop its potential. Refining and processing of biomass into energy remains expensive and experimental.
• Energy crops are still land-intensive and require crop space to grow and harvest. However, set-aside lands such as environmental buffers could be put into use to grow energy crops.
• Making a truly sustainable biomass industry means powering planting and harvesting through biomass energy. Currently, fossil fuel power is used.
• Biomass is less energy dense than fossil fuel, meaning a much larger volume of raw material is required to create a unit of energy. This makes shipping and large-scale bioenergy production cost-inefficient, but it makes community-scale power generation viable, enabling rural or agricultural communities to be more energy self-sufficient.

Company Spotlight Energy Answers International Energy Answers International is now in permitting stages to build a large waste-to-electricity power plant, called the Fairfield Renewable Energy Facility, on the Fairfield Peninsula, Baltimore. Construction will start in 2010. Learn More »