Benefits reaped from use of biomass

The benefits of biomass are:

• The use of biomass energy has the potential to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The use of biomass can reduce dependence on foreign oil because biofuels are the only renewable liquid transportation fuels available.
• Biomass energy supports U.S. agricultural and forest-product industries. The main biomass feedstocks for power are paper mill residue, lumber mill scrap, and municipal waste.

The uses of biomass

How biomass can be used

• When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. If you have a fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can be burned to produce steam for making electricity, or to provide heat to industries and homes.
• Biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Methane gas is the main ingredient of natural gas. Crops like corn and sugar cane can be fermented to produce the transportation fuel, ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats.