Biomass encompasses plant based fuels and various waste products. Wood was our earliest fuel and without it, civilisation could not have developed as it did. The idea of exploiting waste as a fuel is not a completely new one either - electricity has been generated from sewage gas since the early 20th century.
Nowadays, wood can be burned in small-scale boilers to provide useful heat or in large-scale power stations to raise steam for electricity generation. The main sources of wood fuel are specially grown plantations of willow or poplar coppice. However, straw and other agricultural wastes can also be used as combustible fuels.
Household, commercial and industrial waste can also be suitable for combustion. Even landfilled waste represents a valuable source of energy. The gas given off by organic waste as it decays in landfill sites can be collected and burned to produce heat and power. A similar energy rich gas can be produced from human and animal waste by enclosing it in oxygen-free tanks called anaerobic digesters.
The UK has plenty of potential to use biofuels extensively in the future. Electricity from landfill gas is already competitive with that produced from fossil fuels, while schemes using wood fuel and other ‘agricultural’ biofuels help stimulate rural economies.
The Government scheme ‘
Low Carbon Buildings Programme’ is designed to help with the cost of installing wood- fired boilers and stoves.
Contacts
Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre for London
Telephone: 0800 512012
E-mail: advice@est-london.org.uk
Website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/london