DEFINITION OF BIOMASS
"Biomass comes in its natural state and is neither impregnated nor coated with any other substance. In particular it includes wood as raw pieces, bark, wood shreds, chips, sawdust or trimmings from the wood industry, from its transformation or from handcrafts".
Thanks to biomass the Earth "recovers"
Explanation
Nature exploits a clean, renewable and free source of energy: light.
Photosynthesis uses sunlight to break down the water molecules (H2O)
contained in the leaves of trees. The resulting oxygen immediately
goes into the atmosphere as gas, while the hydrogen combines with the
carbon dioxide absorbed by the leaves. This mechanism continues from
spring through to autumn.
Definition
Biomass covers all organic matter of plant or animal origin as well as conversion
by-products. It comprises the entire food chain, whose origin is the conversion
of solar energy into chemical energy via photosynthesis. The term "biomass" also
means energy that can be recovered from various organic materials (wood, waste,
crops) by combustion or otherwise.
Wood,
the main item
In this sense biomass constitutes renewable energy. The use of this fuel and
its by-products provides alternative thermal and/or electrical energy that
respects environmental constraints.
Wood, a neutral fuel
While the combustion of wood contributes to increased emissions of carbon
dioxide when forests are over-exploited, it is found however that if
replanting takes place, the release of CO2 due to wood burning is compensated
for by the "photosynthesis", which ensures plant growth.
The advantages of biomass
An undeniable advantage of biomass energy conversion lies in the fact
that, in addition to energy production, it involves the treatment and
elimination of organic wastes, thus helping to cleaning up our environment.
