What is Bioenenergy?

Bioenergy is simply energy derived from material harvested from biological sources. This includes biomass, the biological material used as a biofuel.

Biomass can be created from any organic material that has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy. As a fuel it mainly includes wood, wood-waste, brash and other by-products from a wide variety of vegetation sources.

Biomass is most commonly found in plant matter and is used to generate electricity or produce heat, usually by direct incineration. Forest residues, such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps can be efficiently converted into bales or wood-chip for ease of transportation and the enhanced burning qualities they then have.

Biomass does not include organic material in the form of traditional fossil fuels originally created by being transformed through geological processes into such things as coal or oil. Although fossil fuels have their origin in ancient biomass, they are not considered to be in this substance group by the generally accepted definition, because they contain carbon that has been removed from a previous carbon cycle not that that we are in at present. It is because fossil fuels are not part of the current carbon cycle that its use disturbs the atmospheric carbon dioxide content today, where as the burning of biomass does not.

These qualities and its natural sustainability, means that biomass is becoming a more and more requested commodity by organisations and authorities, especially those that have a public responsibility.