Bioenergy

The supply of sustainable energy is one of the main challenges that mankind will face over the coming decades. Biomass can sustainably supply future energy demand. Biomass is any organic material which has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy by photosynthesis. Bioenergy is renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources (biomass). Petroleum will become increasingly expensive and scarce, while the climatic effects of the massive use of all fossil fuels will by then be felt. At the same time, current nuclear installations will have reached the end of their useful life. And it is not clear, especially in Europe, whether the power they will no longer provide when shut down, will be supplied by new nuclear plants. At present, we cannot abandon any existing energy sources. They must receive the necessary modifications to eliminate or reduce their environmental impact, and new sources must be added especially renewable ones. Bioenergy is the best solution for this energy problem in the world. Biomass energy has rapidly become a vital part of the global renewable energy mix and accounts for an ever-growing share of electric capacity added worldwide. Renewable energy supplies around one-fifth of the final energy consumption worldwide, counting traditional biomass, large hydropower, and "new" renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels). Modern technology even makes landfills or waste zones potential bioenergy resources. It can be used to be a sustainable power source providing heat, gas, and fuel.

The use of municipal and household waste is at the forefront of new sources for biomass and is a largely discarded resource on which new research is being conducted for the use of energy production. Another form of bioenergy can be attained from microbial fuel cells, in which chemical energy stored in wastewater or soil is converted directly into electrical energy via the metabolic processes of electrogenic micro-organisms. Besides biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Rotting garbage, and agricultural and human waste, all release methane gas, also called "landfill gas" or "biogas". Crops, such as corn and sugar cane, can be fermented to produce transportation fuel, ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats. Traditional biomass, primarily for cooking and heating (wood), represents about 13 percent and is growing slowly or even declining in some regions as biomass is used more efficiently or replaced by more modern energy forms. Some of the recent predictions suggest that biomass energy is likely to make up one-third of the total world energy mix by 2050. Biofuel provides around 3% of the world's fuel for transport. Even in the present, 10% of global annual primary energy consumption is from biomass.

Bioenergy systems offer significant possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions due to their immense potential to replace fossil fuels in energy production. Biomass reduces emissions and enhances carbon sequestration since short-rotation crops or forests established on abandoned agricultural land accumulate carbon in the soil. Further Bioenergy usually provides an irreversible mitigation effect by reducing carbon dioxide at source, but it may emit more carbon per unit of energy than fossil fuels unless biomass fuels are produced unsustainably.

Biomass can play a major role in reducing the reliance on fossil fuels by making use of thermochemical conversion technologies. Besides, the increased utilization of biomass-based fuels will be instrumental in safeguarding the environment, generation of new job opportunities, sustainable development, and health improvements in rural areas. The development of efficient biomass handling technology, improvement of agroforestry systems, and the establishment of small and large-scale biomass-based power plants can play a major role in rural development. Biomass energy could also aid in modernizing the agricultural economy. Most of the animal waste, garden waste, and even human waste is used for the production of biogas these days, managing the wastes that contribute to environmental pollution.

But there are many negative effects on the environment as well. Destruction of forests, is one of the bad impacts on the environment due to the usage of wood. For the production of Biodiesel, oily crops like palm trees are planted in vast areas in some countries, which causes the reduction of soil nutrients. Also disturbance for water quality and quantity, because of the use of pesticides and fertilizers to enhance feedstock. What substances can be dissolved in water? Impacts on natural biodiversity are some of the other crises arising parallel to bioenergy production.

However in the future, biomass will be one of the effective and renewable sources of energy apart from solar energy and other natural energy sources. The biofuels and solids can replace mineral oils and other fossil fuels if the development of novel biomass conversion technologies and new resources will be introduced. As an example algae-based bioenergy is a new concept that is an answer for the lack of resources. The transition of the world's economy into the 'Bio-Economy' will clarify the problems with the production of bioenergy. But more attention is required to impacts the environment due to the thirst for finding biofuels.

References

Helsel, D. S. Z., 2009. Biomass for On-Farm Energy, Washington: United State Department of Agriculture.

Kartha, S., 2006. Bioenergy and Agriculture: Promises and Challenges, Washington: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Kindberg, L., 2010. An Introduction to Bioenergy: Feedstocks, Processes and Products, Montana: National Center for Appropriate Technology .

Koljonen, T., 2013. Bioenergy. [Online] Available at: www.worldenergy.org/assets/images/imported/2013/10/WER_2013_7_Bioenergy.pdf [Accessed 25 05 2020].

Zafar, S., 2020. BIOENERGY CONSULT. [Online] Available at: https://www.bioenergyconsult.com/a-glance-at-biomass-energy/ [Accessed 25 05 2020].