Back to Biomass Home Page            

Why Heat with Biomass?

Why Biomass Is Important

Utilizing biomass as one of the solutions to our nation’s energy challenges is triggered, in large part, by the increasing prices for fossil fuels.  Further, there are concerns that fossil fuels may be exhausted in the near-term future and other energy resources must be explored to meet the energy appetites of the United States and other countries throughout the world.

Environmental quality is another major factor influencing the demand for biomass energy.  Whenever biomass is consumed as fuel, there will be carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other greenhouse gases released into the environment.  However, carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas of greatest concern – is effectively sequestered by the plant life as the biomass is growing in the fields and forests.  Through the process of photosynthesis, the plants are sequestering carbon dioxide from the environment and releasing beneficial oxygen into the environment.  Utilizing biomass as fuel is carbon dioxide-neutral in many cases and in some cases it results in a net reduction of carbon dioxide in the environment over the life-cycle of the plants.

Benefits of Using Biomass Heat

Benefits of utilizing biomass energy from crops, crop residues, and forest-based products include:

Technological breakthroughs in the future will enable us to more feasibly process crop residues and waste products from urban, suburban, and rural areas directly into ethanol and other fuel sources.  Biomass energy will never become the only energy resource that our society relies upon, but it will become a very significant part of our energy portfolio.