I Don’t Think I Shall Ever See…

Biomass was our first energy source. Fires were built from wood and manure to heat, cook, and light our homes. As human civilization moves into the 21st century, biomass is being considered for large scale production of energy, enough energy to power whole cities from a central point. Biomass energy is carbon neutral, requires no mining or drilling, and does not produce waste products that linger for thousands of years. Biomass fuels are comprised primarily of plant matter, which includes anything from trees and grass to salt water algae. Plants pull carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen through photosynthesis, which makes plants very human-friendly. The plant matter can be converted to energy through burning, thermochemical processing to break the plant down into ethanol and methane for fuel, biologically broken down into fuel through fermentation, or chemically altered to be used as a fuel such as biodiesel. With the growing technologies of fuel crops and fast growing trees and grasses, the wait time for renewable fuel has been cut down considerably. Also, the staggering amounts of agricultural waste products available as a fuel is increasing, so all that remains is the construction of power plants that rely on biomass fuels to generate electricity. Can biomass energy be the energy source to power us into the 21st century?

Green Grass And High Tides Forever

Renewable energy is the most under-utilized energy source, for no apparent reason other than it has no economic upside. You cannot charge for sunlight or air. If there is no money to be made off this energy source, why use it? Is it better to strip thousands of acres of land down to bedrock for coal than to burn a truckload of waste pulp products? Of course it is, financially speaking. After all, waste wood products are useless for anything at all, and would just be thrown away, whereas moving entire communities and poisoning the land, air, and water to strip mine coal is a noble endeavor.
Wow.
Ok, so since biomass as a fuel source is so good for the environment, so cheap its almost like making money, and carbon neutral and beneficial as Mother Nature HERSELF, why aren’t we using it more and shuttering those nasty, filthy, horrible, inefficient, black-smoke-belching coal plants? Well, let’s take a quick look at some of the problems with using biomass as an energy technology. With biomass, fuel transport is the biggest problem. First of all, wood chips and waste pulp do not flow through pipelines very well, so they have to be bought to the power generation plant on trucks and freight cars, which limits the radius of available fuel inventories. In addition, some neighborhoods object to having 240 tractor-trailer loads of turkey manure riding by every day. Although biomass fuels are carbon neutral, the burning still produces airborne particulates that lower air quality. But the trade offs for using biomass as a primary fuel might very well outweigh the negatives.

So, What Can I Do?

Well, biomass just needs a little regulatory push and some solutions to its practical use problems before we can call it a viable large scale energy source. As concerned citizens and consumers, it is in our best interests to start making a place at the table for biomass energy. Every time we can replace a coal fired plant in our energy grid, every time we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, every time we can do something smart instead of doing something dumb is a good thing for the environment, our wallets, and our children. You can help make America smarter by just understanding how the energy grid works, and keeping track of where you get your power. Remember, as always, the key to the individual at home or work helping out the energy grid is through conservation. For starters, you can :

* Go against the NIMBY reflex, and permit biomass energy production in your county. Then hold the owner of the plant to the strictest regulations possible for controlling emissions. The one thing that scares utilities more than anything else is an informed customer. Become one!
*Gently ask your elected representatives to fund biomass energy technology. If they refuse, elect new ones that will. Use your power to vote to provide renewable biomass energy!
*Recycle everything possible. Cans, bottles, plastic, paper, tires, and cardboard clog landfills unnecessarily. Landfill waste is another possible source of methane, so keep your landfill clean and green!
* Find out if your community has a special place for leaves, grass trimmings, and tree limbs that are left over from yard work and storms. These can easily be used as biomass fuels.
* Support your local farmers. With their help, biomass fuels such as corn, soybeans, and crop waste can help supplant foreign oil as a national source of energy.
* Every year you are alive, plant a tree somewhere. It sounds sort of hippy-ish, but every tree you plant reduces your carbon footprint. Just don’t drive more than 200 miles to plant one.
* If you can afford it, buy a hybrid car. Until we can start taking the gas-sucking SUV’s off the road, we are running deep in the red as far as carbon emissions go.
* Oddly enough, eat more fried chicken. This provides manure and feathers for biomass as well as used cooking oil for biodiesel. Who knew?
* And finally, use your voice as a consumer to pressure your power company to shuttering their coal-fired plants in favor of biomass energy. Every time a coal plant closes, an angel can see its wings.

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