permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3746554.stm>

UK boost for biomass fuel crops
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

Scottish forest BBC
Forests could help tackle climate change
The UK is to encourage the production of biomass, crops grown specially for 
use as environmentally-friendly fuels.

The government is setting up a task force to stimulate biomass supply and 
demand, and offering a range of grants.

Ministers hope this will help the UK to meet its targets for using renewable energy, and that it will also boost farming, forestry and the 
countryside.

Material like miscanthus (a tall, woody grass), willow, poplar, sawdust, 
straw, and wood from forests are all suitable.

Funding the industry

The former president of the National Farmers' Union, Sir Ben Gill, is to head 
the new government-appointed task force.

A £3.5m UK-wide Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme will also offer grants to help harvest, store, process and supply biomass for energy 
production.

        
The carbon cycle is the principle behind biomass technology
As trees and plants grow, they soak up carbon dioxide (C02) and store it
It is released when the tree or plant is destroyed, whether by natural decay 
or combustion
This means the carbon in biomass fuels does not contribute to greenhouse gas 
emissions

See how the technology works in practice
Biomass can provide both heating and power, and is one of the fuels available to electricity suppliers in meeting the government's 
Renewables Obligation, which requires them to obtain 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015.

Announcing the infrastructure scheme the Food and Farming Minister Larry Whitty said: "We must look to the future in our search for 
low-carbon energy sources.

"Biomass energy has the potential to be of huge benefit in terms of combating climate change, boosting farm diversification, and creating 
more rural jobs.

"Barriers have to be overcome if we are to establish confidence in the industry, and we want to make it easier for producers to get their 
biomass out of the fields and forests and onto the market, to make it a viable alternative energy source."

Sir Ben Gill said: "Biomass struggles to make progress. I intend to define why and then look at what needs to be done. This study is about 
finding solutions and that's what we intend to deliver."

Telling criticism

The government's Energy White Paper includes an aim for renewable energy to supply 10% of UK electricity by 2010, with an aspiration to 
double that by 2020.

Last May a report by an independent advisory group, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, said the government was neglecting the 
potential of biomass for tackling climate change.

The RCEP chairman is Professor Sir Tom Blundell, head of the department of 
biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Speaking at the report's launch, he said: "I am disappointed that energy from biomass has not developed as quickly in the UK as elsewhere in 
Europe.

"It could make a vital contribution to the UK's targets for combating climate change, but is failing to develop under fractured and 
misdirected government policies."

The RCEP report called for:

    * a renewable heat obligation, which would require current heat suppliers (of gas, oil and electricity) to supply a given proportion of 
their heat from renewable sources by a set date
    * the formation of a government/industry biomass forum
    * biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) schemes in all new-build 
projects.

The government's response to the report, which has just been published, 
expresses agreement with some of the RCEP's points.

One use of biomass fuel is in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant
The fuel is turned into hot pressurised combustion gases, which are cleaned 
to prevent corrosion of the system
The clean gases are then burned with air before entering a turbine, 
generating electricity
Heat from the gases is recovered after the gas turbine using water in the 
heat exchanger
The combustion gases can then usually be vented from a stack without further 
cleaning
The only other by-product is ash, which can be mixed with coal for burning in 
a conventional power station