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What is Biomass? "Solid Sunshine"       Biomass is a living plant or its byproducts that in time become a source of economic energy used to reduce or displace our dependency on fossil fuels and improve our environment. Accumulations of woody waste represent a viable resource for energy or energy rich products.       Biomass Converts To: Transportation Fuels, Alcohol, Bio-Diesel, and Liquid Synthetic Hydrocarbons and can be made from sugars, lignocellulosic and fatty biomass feed stocks. Thermal and Mechanical Energy. Man has used wood and other biomass as fuel throughout history. Even today there is a resurgence of interest in wood fired power plants. Building Materials. Waste wood and straw are now being used in combination with waste plastics and/or Portland cement to make versatile building materials. Chemicals….two hundred years ago many of our chemicals came from biomass. Wood alcohol, acetone acid dyes pharmaceuticals are examples.       Conversion and Products:     Biomass is derived from organic matter, a renewable resource. Biomass energy resources are classed into five major types: Forest Residues and Waste Animal Waste Agricultural Residues and Waste Herbaceous Plants and Short-rotation Tree Crops Aquatic Plants     We will add:     6. Commercial, Municipal and Industrial Waste     Not all biomass produced is available for energy production. Economic considerations sort the various materials into categories of best economic use. Energy production is near the lower end of the economic scale and biomass for this purpose is largely low value residues and discards in rural and urban settings. Although this portion is only a fraction of the total biomass produced, it will be a significant part of the effort in developing alternative supplies of energy to replace fossil fuels.     To extract the energy or energy rich products form biomass, the biomass itself must be further classified. Each class lends itself to different conversion technologies to reach the best yield of desired product.     Woody biomass has been used since before recorded history as fuel to cook food and heat shelters. Wood supplied 90% of the energy in the United States for domestic and industrial fuel until the mid 1800s. Wood is still the fuel of choice for most of the developing world. Since the oil shortages of the 1970s a renewed interest in wood as a fuel in the forest industries has developed to replace expensive fossil fuels. Wood can compete with coal in areas where it is plentiful and will be increasingly in demand as air quality standards become more stringent.     Herbaceous biomass is composed of crop residues, annual weed production, food processing wastes, lawn clippings and other fast growing plant materials. It may contain the same amount of energy as woody biomass but is usually difficult to convert by direct combustion. Processes are available that can convert this varied material into a liquid (bio-crude) or a mixture of combustible gasses (producer gas or synthesis gas) suitable as fuel or feedstock for further processing. Both processes are continually being modified to attain increased overall energy efficiency. These processes increase the use of biomass in developing marketable products.     Biological modification of some biomass feedstock such as sugars and starches is a potential means of replacing petroleum as transportation fuel. The fermentation of sugar into ethanol has a long history and this process is already providing an extra income for agriculture in our nation. In addition a high value livestock feed is a byproduct of ethanol production.     Fats are another fraction with unique properties of interest to alternative fuel development. Surplus vegetable oils, tallow rendered from animal harvest waste and spent cooking oils are presently being converted into bio-diesel. This clean, biodegradable liquid fuel can be blended into petroleum diesel to extend the supply of this vital transportation fuel. Bio-diesel blends result in less air pollution from the diesel engine increasing their market value.     What is next in bioconversion? Research and Development is a continuous process. The investor in bioconversion will find an ever-increasing refinement of conversion technologies and an ever-widening array of high value products. The community, the developer and the environment are all winners when local biomass residues are wisely used as alternative energy resources. The Nevada Alternative Energy Source Book, 4th Edition, 1986, Governor’s Office of Community Services, Carson City, Nevada; pages 66-67.

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