Biomass Power

Biomass energy encompasses a range of different technologies, including biomass combustion, anaerobic digestion, gasification, landfill gas combustion and conversion of biomass to biofuels. Using biomass resources for energy production reduces harmful environmental impacts.

Biomass Feedstocks

Biomass includes all plants and plant-derived material, and is a sustainable feedstock for the production of transportation fuels, products, and power. The success of the bio-industry depends on the quantity and quality of biomass available, and on the industry's ability to cost-effectively utilize biomass for energy production. Ensuring a sustainable, high-quality, available, and functional supply of biomass feedstock requires R&D on all elements of the biomass feedstock supply chain, from plant breeding and genomics to crop production and harvesting techniques.

Processing and Conversion

To date, biochemical and thermo-chemical conversions are the two types of conversion to convert biomass into fuels, products, and power. Biochemical Conversion: Biomass is broken down to sugars using either enzymatic or chemical processes and then converted to ethanol via fermentation.Thermo-chemical Conversion: Biomass is broken down to intermediates using heat and upgraded to fuels using a combination of heat and pressure in the presence of catalysts.

Biochemical Conversion

This area focuses on the research, development and demonstration of biological processes that convert biomass to biofuels, chemicals, and power.
Biochemical processes also complement thermo-chemical conversion by providing residual materials for further processing.

Biorefineries

Biorefineries are similar to petroleum refineries in theory; however, biorefineries use biological matter (as opposed to petroleum or other fossil sources) to produce transportation fuels, chemicals, and heat and power.