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Around the world, biomass as a source of energy is becoming omnipresent. In countries, like Germany with an abundance of wind power along Hamburg to Berlin there is a huge utilization of “biodiesel”. The total consumption of biodiesel per year represents more than 3 percent of its total consumption.

Biomass has its origins from the past. Moreover, the logs that are used in fires are examples of biomass. The definition of biomass has nevertheless evolved and is nowadays mainly associated with biogas, biodiesel and ethanol. These fuels are as effective as oil or gas but they are derived from plants.

Ethanol is generated from natural corns that are mixed with gasoline. In Brazil, ethanol is produced based on sugarcane and it accounts for the supply to almost 50 percent of the fuel needed by automobile in the country.

Moreover, biodiesel is produced by mixing vegetable oil with regular diesel. These types of biofuels can with ease be integrated into the fuel systems already in use, according to Michael Pacheco, the National Bioenergy Center director.

Limitation of Biomass

The major restriction for unlimited biomass is land availability. The efficiency of biomass is relatively feeble. Photosynthesis is the mechanism used by plants to capture energy from the sun, yet this system is much less effective than solar panels. This results in the setback that much more land is needed to produce biomass than would be needed to produce energy from solar cells.

To make it possible to fuel all the vehicles in the world by biofuel, it would need more than twice the land surface used for farming.

Research is trying to make fuel-farming more competent, some examples are the National Bioenergy Center. The actual components used to produce biomass are sugars, corns, plant starches and oil However there are many other organisms that are currently being tested. There are also researches that are trying to establish crops that are more efficient with a higher yield rate.

A native North America plant is switchgrass. It grows much faster and easier than corn, which is pervasively used to generate ethanol in the United State. Research is also trying to yield biomass from crops that can be grown on land incompatible for farming, thereby reducing the demands for farmland to be converted into biomass production fields.

Emerging results are astounding, such as automobiles that are hybrid, and they aren’t putting high tension of additional land requirements.

In general, the use of corn or sugarcanes to produce biomass has their respective oppositions. Vested-interest groups stand to lose. The use of sugarcane to produce biomass will raise the price of sugar, and this would be similar for any other crops used for biomass purposes instead of their actual aim.

Source: National Geographic