What is the future for biomass?
Above - Biomass power plant.
Twenty one countries plus the European Commission have signed a formal agreement to continue to develop bioenergy. They have established an international collaborative agreement known as the International Energy Agency Bioenergy, or IEA Bioenergy. Their aim is to improve international cooperation and information in national bioenergy research, development and deployment organisations. The participants include the European Commission, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Bioenergy resources have the potential to meet 50 per cent of the world’s energy demands during the next century. It is critical therefore that the biomass processes used in these countries are sustainable. The modernisation of biomass technologies, leading to more efficient biomass production and conversion, is one possible direction for biomass use in developing countries.
In industrialised nations, the leading biomass processes in the future are expected to be the direct combustion of residues and wastes for electricity generation, bio-ethanol and biodiesel as liquid fuels, and combined heat and power production from energy crops. In the short to medium term, biomass waste and residues are expected to dominate biomass supply, to be substituted by energy crops in the longer term.
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