Distributed Renewable Energies for Off-Grid Communities

Chapter Nine

Biomass and Bioenergy

9.1 Characteristics and Potentials

Of all renewable energy sources the largest contribution, especially in the short and medium range, is expected to come from biomass. Fuels derived from energy crops are not only potentially renewable, but are also sufficiently similar in origin to the fossil fuels (which also began as biomass) to provide direct substitution. They are storable, transportable, available and affordable and can be converted into a wide variety of energy carriers using existing and novel conversion technologies, and thus have the potential to be significant new sources of energy into the twenty-first century.

Biomass as energy feedstock is:

• Storable

• Transportable

• Convertible

• Available and ...