Biomass Energy Benefits & Issues

With the exception of methane recovery systems, biomass systems are usually fueled by waste wood, from logging operations, forest thinning, low-grade wood, and/or sawmill residues. These systems create a commercial market for wood whose extraction benefits forest health while also boosting the forest-product economy. Rather than depleting the forest resource, biomass energy, when sustainably supplied, helps it to grow.

Modern biomass energy systems are far cleaner than wood stoves. A wood energy system emits only one fifteenth (7%) of the particulate matter (PM10) of the average wood stove in use today for the same level of fuel energy input. Still, wood energy systems do have emissions, as do all combustion systems—oil, wood, gas, or coal. Comparing these emissions is a complex task. The greatest concern with biomass systems is PM, which can be mitigated in a variety of ways. Compared to fossil fuels, biomass systems have far less emissions of sulfur oxides than fuel oil and coal and similar emissions of nitrogen oxide. All fuel combustion processes, regardless of fuel, produce carbon monoxide (CO).

The greatest environmental benefit of biomass systems is for climate change. Compared to fossil fuel systems, which load carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, biomass systems do not add to atmospheric levels, when forests are sustainably managed. Thus, replacing fossil fuel systems with biomass reduces the emissions of the main gas that contributes to climate change.

Biomass energy systems are fueled by a renewable, local resource. Dollars spent on these fuels stay in the local and regional economy, and help build jobs and support businesses in the forest-products sector. Because the pricing of biomass fuel is relatively stable, institutions heating with biomass can plan more reliably for fuel costs, with very low rates of price increase.

Burning biomass for energy contributes to national security by reducing dependence on foreign energy supplies. It supports key industries in many states, along with small businesses in rural areas. Unlike renewable systems like wind and solar, biomass can run constantly - and in the near future, emerging new technologies promise major improvements in efficiency, emissions, and cost effectiveness.