Biomass, A Great Fuel Alternative

What can biomass mean to the hospitality industry? It means having a renewable energy source, cleaner air, reduced landfill contributions and increased energy self sufficiency -- and the associated cost savings. The use of biomass can possibly make the difference between a go- and no-go hospitality project because it puts energy where needed. Biomass fuels can be used for transportation or to generate electricity, heat and steam, and with co-generation you can get both heat and power from one thermodynamic process. Hospitality venues need all of those energy forms in great abundance.

Around the world, biomass currently generates only about 10 percent of the primary energy consumption. That consumption is significantly higher in developing countries than in developed countries. India's fuel consumption is about 1/3 biomass fuels, 15 percent of that being for urban use and 85 percent rural. Comparing dried biomass to dried coal, biomass creates about 1/3 the energy that coal does, but without depleting a non-renewable fuel. Only about 3 percent of the U.S. power supply comes from biofuels.

At California's peak in 1990, 10 million tons of biomass fuels per year were converted into electricity, producing about 2% of the state's electricity -- five million MW. In the later half of the '90s the number of biomass power plants was reduced from 60 to 29 because the energy crisis "was over". Those 29 plants have a 600 MW capacity; 165 MW are idle but can be brought back into production at any time, making California the number one state for using bioenergy (biomass energy). Federal and state government mandates for fossil fuel alternatives is renewing the interest in biomass as a renewable energy.

One resource claimed that biofuels generate about the same amount of CO2 as fossil fuels, but that CO2 is a trade-off because plants remove CO2 from air through photosynthesis giving a netzero sum, so they balance each other � the burning and growing of plants. Plant-derived fuel has great power potential on an ongoing basis.

Using biomass for energy production isn't without challenges. The infrastructure for this technology isn't abundant yet, but that�s slowly changing. Biomass is a more costly fuel than coal and natural gas for electric production, but it has benefits that coal and natural gas don't have. According to several government and scientific resources, in using biomass fuels you are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by not adding the materials to the landfills (there are fewer greenhouse gas emissions from burning biomass residues to produce energy than adding them to landfills where they release methane and other gasses, according to many government reports I read). By not adding to landfills you are reducing leachates, and thus helping groundwater quality. By using biomass residue you are helping clean the air because when it is processed in a controlled situation, particulates are trapped, unlike when it's burned in situ. Biomass energy production creates jobs.

It�s time to turn our attention to fossil-fuel alternatives so that we can help control utility costs and therefore budgets. Biomass is one viable alternative to fossil fuel. And if you are creating a hospitality venue in a developing country or in a remote part of a developed country, you are faced with the question of where to get power anyway, so this technology becomes more viable, maybe more viable than using conventional fossil-fuel-produced energy. Hospitality venues produce lots of waste, waste that typically enters the landfills which impacts land, air, and water. Including a biomass power plant to your project, you manage several challenges at once, provide more employment, and probably save money at the same time.

You may not be able to utilize alternate energy sources yet, but the time is coming when you'll want to consider something different. Biomass could be your fuel of choice. Consider biomass fuels as one option for your energy. Independence from fossil fuels is an ECOnomically Sound goal.