cover image: Biomass energy in Central British Columbia

Premium

20.500.12592/npk4j3

Biomass energy in Central British Columbia

13 Feb 2009

Bioenergy, or energy derived from biomass, was the predominant energy source for humans from prehistory to the mid-19th century. With on-going energy security issues, rising greenhouse-gas (GHG) levels driven by fossil fuel energy consumption and volatile natural resource prices, the biomass energy of yesterday is now being re-evaluated as the energy source for tomorrow. The technology of bioenergy production has evolved considerably in recent years, such that heat, electricity and liquid fuels for transportation can all be derived from a wide variety of biomass starting materials. Though the transformation of sunlight energy into chemical biomass energy in plants is in theory an endlessly renewable process, the way in which we manage our lands to generate this biomass energy can be degradative and unsustainable when all of the land-use values are taken into account. This paper evaluates bioenergy through the prism of sustainability, highlighting issues relating to the physical and temporal scales of the resource and impacts of its use, technological opportunities and limitations, net environmental impacts, and community concerns and needs. The geographic focus is the central interior of British Columbia, however, the issues raised in this paper will be relevant to all locations considering bioenergy.
agriculture environment air pollution renewable energy biogas bioenergy biomass biofuels soil natural resources ethanol biomass energy chemicals combustion energy resources environmental pollution energy industry biofuel waste diesel fuel biodiesel energy and resource artificial objects anaerobic digestion ash biochar greenhouse-gas

Authors

Helle, Steve, Fredeen, Art, Rutherford, Mike

Pages
38
Published in
Ottawa, Ontario

Related Topics

All