What are some ways of converting biomass to useful energy, and what is the potential environmental impact of each?
What will be an ideal response?
The four ways of converting biomass to useful energy are burning of firewood, municipal wastepaper, and other organic waste; generating methane from anaerobic digestion of manure and sewage sludge; and producing alcohol from fermenting grains and other starchy materials.
The environmental impact from burning firewood is deforestation. The environmental consequences from burning municipal wastepaper is that the paper could be recycled (saving resources and more energy than can be obtained from burning) and the potential for dioxin production if the temperatures are not high enough. Generating methane from manure and sewage sludge would be problematic if methane is released prior to its use (potent greenhouse gas), and metals in sewage sludge might be problematic. Producing alcohol from fermenting grains has all the problems associated with farming, plus it diverts farmland from food production.
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