Biomass power and demands on wood supply

It is argued that biomass power generation is environmentally friendly because the carbon released into the atmosphere when the material is burned is offset against the carbon absorbed by the next crop as it grows to maturity. The material grown and burnt might be fast-growing wood like poplar, a crop like canola (oilseed rape), and some kinds of grasses. Woodchip and other by-products are also burnt for power generation in huge quantities.

Food waste can also be treated as biomass. In the UK most local councils collect specially-bagged food waste on a fortnightly basis, and where this used to go into composting programs it's increasingly ending up burnt for power generation purposes.

There is some appeal in biomass as a fuel, and many corporations and government bodies are shouting loudly about the environmental benefits. It's renewable (with careful management), far cleaner than coal in terms of airborne pollutants, and it can be generated locally almost anywhere. The UK government is one of several to invest heavily in biofuel/biomass power stations for the near future, and while these are far more environmentally friendly than the coal-fired power stations that traditionally dotted the British landscape, they haven't always been welcomed with open arms.

Biomass burned as a fuel still pumps carbon into the atmosphere. It contributes to the staggering 70 million tons of carbon that are released every day [1], and it can also be used to justify large-scale deforestation and the conversion of native broadleaved woodland into plantation softwoods that provide limited animal habitat and damage the soil [2]. Compared to alternatives like wind power, which can also be small or large scale, biomass doesn't look so friendly. Activists didn't like the potential impacts on the forests and local communities weren't keen to have biomass power stations in their back yards, either.

There have been consequences to the wood and forestry industry too. Manufacturers of products like fibreboard that are made with offcuts and the waste products from timber mills have run into serious demand problems. Prices are rising sharply as biomass becomes more and more popular as a fuel. The materials they used to recycle are now being bought and burnt as biomass. While there are certainly environmental problems associated with fibreboards and some are not nearly as green as they might first appear [3], recycling a woody material keeps its carbon locked away. Burning it releases that carbon. The increased demand that biomass power plants create will change the way all kinds of forestry products are created and sold.

Until stalled by a widespread popular backlash, the UK government had planned to sell off nationally-owned forests on a massive scale. While supply of wood might increase if our forests were in private hands, there is little doubt that the quality of environmental management would drop overnight and precious woodland areas could suffer untold damage or vanish altogether. While we'll never know if the idea of selling off the forests was tied up with the plan to increase the number of biomass power stations in Britain, it looks pretty suspicious- raising the value of a commodity before putting it on sale is basic economics.

Biomass fuel can be made to work in an environmentally friendly way on the small scale. There is little doubt over that, and a lot of great research is being put into micro-scale green power generation right now. However, allowing widespread building of new biomass power plants could change the whole forestry landscape, and it means trusting profit-driven executives to put the environment first. At worst, biomass burning presents real risks to woodlands. Increased calls for crops to be burnt could have an impact on the growth of sustainable farming too, but on the other hand it's a lot greener than coal, and coal is still in widespread use as a fuel. As always, it's up to ordinary people to keep a close eye on the environmental effects of this new trend and make sure they stay positive, or that biomass projects are abandoned in favour of better alternatives.

Jess Spate has a strong interest in clean fuel generation. She works as a green business consultant for appoutdoors.com and fountainspirit.com.

[1] http://www.acoolerclimate.com/10-global-warming-fast-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind/

[2] http://www.oekofilm.de/terraces-and-raised-beds.phtml

[3] http://www.valuecreatedreview.com/news87.htm

Image credit 1: Andrew Ciscel via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Image credit 2: Sierra Club Atlantic Canada Chapter via flickr under a Creative Commons license

This post was syndicated for www.premierevanities.com and Simply Bathtubs.