People have used biomass energy — energy from living things — since the earliest “cave men” first made wood fires for cooking or keeping warm. The most common biomass materials are plants, such as corn and soy. Biomass is an organic renewable energy source that includes materials such as agriculture and forest residues, energy crops, and algae. Used to fuel electric generators and other machinery.
It can also, unlike other renewable energy sources, be converted directly into liquid fuels, called “biofuels,” to help meet transportation fuel needs. Scientists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy, and its national laboratories, are finding new, more efficient ways to convert biomass into biofuels that can take the place of conventional fuels like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
Examples of biofuels include ethanol (often made from corn in the United States and sugarcane in Brazil), biodiesel (from vegetable oils and liquid animal fats), green diesel (derived from algae and other plant sources), and biogas (methane derived from animal manure and other digested organic material).
Unfortunately, trees are also being burned. About 20% of the energy the EU counts and subsidies as “renewable” comes from logging and burning forest wood. This increases carbon pollution, destroys forest ecosystems, and adds to air pollution. Burning forest biomass isn’t carbon neutral or even “low carbon” as the idea of “renewable” implies. Leading scientists recognize that regrowing forests to offset CO2 from burning wood takes decades to centuries. Not to mention that per unit of energy, biomass results in higher emissions than coal.
11/18/22
Unlike other renewable energy sources, biomass can be converted directly into liquid fuels, called "biofuels," to help meet transportation fuel needs. The two most common types of biofuels in use today are ethanol and biodiesel,…
02/18/22
Opening Statements Chairman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) of the Subcommittee on Energy <../../../download/chair-bowman-os-hydrogen-randd> Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) <../../../download/chairwoman-johnson-os-hydrogen-randd> Witnesses
02/15/22
Hydrogen fuel burns clean, so it has potential as a low-carbon energy source — depending on how it’s made. Today, most hydrogen is known as “gray”hydrogen. It’s derived from natural gas using an energy-intensive process…
02/07/22
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $28 million in federal funding for research and development (R&D) and front-end engineering design (FEED) projects that will advance…
09/13/21
As of January 1, 2021, total U.S. biofuels plant production capacity reached 21 billion gallons per year (gal/y) (or 1.3 million barrels per day [b/d]), as reported by 278 facilities. Fuel ethanol producers accounted for…
03/21/21
Fluctuations in the carbon-rich biomass held within the world’s forests can contribute to, or slow, climate change. A series of new maps of above ground biomass, generated using space observations, is set to help our…
09/14/20
Paris-compatible climate ambition = Net Zero Emissions in Europe by 2050. It leaves no space for unabated emissions.
09/14/20
At the request of the government of Japan under its G20 presidency, the International Energy Agency produced this landmark report to analyse the current state of play for hydrogen and to offer guidance on its…
09/14/20
Climate change is a serious concern for Europeans. The current changes in our planet's climate are redrawing the world and magnifying the risks for instability in all forms. The last two decades included 18 of…
09/14/20
A new star has exploded back onto the climate scene: hydrogen. It offers possibilities to move away from fossil fuels, but it brings its own challenges.
04/25/20
Of course, nothing is without penalty, and biodiesel does have its drawbacks. Some have to do with the fuel itself, and many have to do with the bigger picture.
04/13/20
Wave- and tidal-energy systems harness natural oceanic flows—among the most powerful and constant dynamics on earth—to generate electricity. A variety of companies, utilities, universities, and governments are working to realize the promise of consistent and…
04/10/20
The vast majority of this industrial hydrogen is produced from coal gasification or steam methane reforming (SMR), both of which need a lot of energy and generate significant carbon dioxide emissions. A much smaller proportion…
04/10/20
The great thing about biomass energy (or simply “bioenergy”) is that its sources are plant and animal waste. So not only does biomass energy divert this organic matter from the waste stream — it turns…
04/10/20
Biomass has been in use since people first began burning wood to cook food and keep warm. Wood is still the largest biomass energy resource today. Other sources include food crops, grassy and woody plants,…
04/10/20
Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. When biomass is burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. Biomass can be burned directly…
04/10/20
Wave and tidal energy harvesting has been around for a few decades. But it has only been in recent years that it has started to become more realistic due to advance in research and technology.…
04/10/20
Wave, tidal and ocean energy technologies are just beginning to reach viability as potential commercial power sources. While just a few small projects currently exist, the technology is advancing rapidly and has huge potential for…
04/10/20
In any discussion about climate change, renewable energy usually tops the list of changes the world can implement to stave off the worst effects of rising temperatures. That's because renewable energy sources such as solar…
04/10/20
To produce hydrogen, it must be separated from the other elements in the molecules where it occurs. Hydrogen atoms can be separated from water; from hydrocarbons in coal, petroleum, and natural gas; and from biomass.
