Climate change, renewable energy or ecological transition are the main themes founded in social and political debates. For the transition to be effective, experts are working hard on proposing new technologies that will change our way of consuming energies. Among several solutions, one particularly has been focused by few countries : the advantages of biomass. An organic material that can be burned or converted to fuel and gas. To promote a clean energy, some government are setting up advantages & incentives for biomass energy.
News are constantly a reminder of the climate situation the planet is facing. As seen recently in Brazil, the Amazon rainforest is seriously burning. These events are the exemple that the ecological transition is not apprehended by every countries. But reactions over social medias, and responses by members of the G7 members during the convention held in France show that the international opinion is well aware of the gravity of climate change.
To prevent the disaster, some countries are investing a lot in renewable energies. Scotland for example, manages a vast wind farm, which produce twice the energy the country needs to sustain the electricity for its population. At the other hand, the UK government has set up a plan called the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The goal with the RHI is to encourage people to invest in an eligible renewable heating technology by promising them quarterly cash payments over seven years. This UK government plan has the ambition to contribute of 12% of heating coming from renewable sources towards 2020.
Among technologies the RHI supports for, biomass boilers is the most promising one. The biomass comes from plants and animals. Its an organic material, which makes it a renewable source of energy. To produce energy from biomass, several solutions are possible : wood and wood processing wastes can be burned to generate heat in buildings and even generate electricity ; agricultural crops can be converted to liquid biofuels ; food wastes can be burned to generate electricity or converted to biogas ; human sewage can be converted to biogas and also burned as a fuel.
Regarding the uses of biomass, which consist in using wastes and processing wastes to produce energy, its from far the best solution from a renewable point of view. American countries, such as the USA and Canada, are interested in the uses of organic materials in producing fuels. In 2017 in the United States, 5% of total primary energy used has been provided by biomass fuels.
More recently, in Canada, the government announced a 4.7 million dollars investment in Woodland Biofuels, a private company specialized in ethanol fabrication from waste biomass. These investments are supposed to develop new technologies that make use of biomass energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and are part of Canada’s climate plan to protect environment.
