As fossil fuel resources become more difficult to find, the cost of extraction becomes inherently more expensive. Thus, alternative energy solutions must be explored to meet exponentially increasing energy demand due to population growth and industrial development. Solutions that derive energy from alternative resources, including sunlight, wind, tides, and biomass, are in various stages of maturity, ranging from theoretical concepts to commercially available commodities.
Power derived from biomass, for example, is widely promoted as an alternative to both transportation fuel and electricity for the national power grid. Before biomass-derived power can be realized on a wide scale, however, several technological and political hurdles need to be overcome. Current challenges include extending the sources of available biomass, optimizing conversion processes to increase yield, effectively utilizing land, and developing the infrastructure to accommodate the new industrial processes.
The following review addresses the 21st century techniques and challenges associated with growing and extracting power from biomass. The summary assesses challenges in three specific areas: 1) growing biomass, in regards to the energy available from a variety of sources; 2) engineering challenges associated with thermo-chemical conversion of biomass; and 3) management challenges associated with land and resource requirements necessary to create a sustainable biomass-to-energy industry. The information will be analyzed to determine the feasibility of biomass-based power as a solution to address dwindling conventional resources.
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