CHAPTER 12Biomass – Energy from Nature
Humans have been using energy from firewood for at least 790 000 years – ever since Stone Age people discovered how to make fire (Figure 12.1). This makes biomass the oldest renewable energy source by a huge margin. In fact, biomass was the most important energy supply worldwide well into the eighteenth century. Even today some countries like Mozambique and Ethiopia use traditional biomass to cover over 90% of their primary energy needs.
As the use of fossil energy supplies grew, biomass use was almost non-existent in the industrialized nations. In 2000 the share of biomass in the primary energy supply in countries such as Britain, Germany, and the USA was not even 3%.
Figure 12.1 People have been using the energy from firewood for thousands of years.
Biomass started to become popular again even in the industrialized countries when oil prices began rising dramatically at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In addition to its traditional use in the form of firewood, modern forms of biomass are now being exploited. Biomass is not only used in simple open fires, but also to operate modern heating systems and power plants for generating electricity, as well as to produce combustible gases and fuels.
12.1 Origins and Use of Biomass
The term ‘biomass’ refers to a mass of organic material. It comprises all forms of life, dead organisms ...