Biomass

Biomass is biological material derived from living or recently living organisms. This organic material contains chemical energy, captured from the sun and stored through the process of photosynthesis.

Biomass materials used for Bioenergy may come from wide ranging sources, including: Purposely grown energy crops such as willow or Miscanthus; municipal solid Wastes (MSW) from households, businesses, restaurants etc; residues from crop agriculture such as straws; Wastes from livestock agriculture such as manures; wood and/ or residues from forests; marine biomass resources such as Algae and Seaweed, and; Wastes and residue materials generated by ongoing processes such as pulp from the paper industry, sawdust from wood processing activities, or waste oils from the food industry.

Biomass materials may processed to produce fuels (biofuels, chips, pellets, Briquettes, Biogas), each providing a potential Feedstock of Bioenergy conversion technologies.

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub have completed research to analyse the UK’s biomass resources and have developed scenarios to calculate the extent that these may be used to generate different forms of energy.