Our Product: About Biomass

About Biomass

There are a wide variety of biomass energy sources, including tree and grass crops, forestry, agricultural, and urban wastes. It is the oldest source of renewable energy known to humans, used since our ancestors learned the secret of fire.

Biomass is a renewable energy source because the energy it contains comes from the sun. Through the process of photosynthesis, chlorophyll in plants captures the sun's energy by converting carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground into carbohydrates, complex compounds composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

When these carbohydrates are burned, they turn back into carbon dioxide and water and release the sun's energy they contain. In this way, biomass functions as a natural battery for storing solar energy. As long as biomass is produced sustainably—with only as much used as is grown—the battery will last indefinitely. (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2008)

Biomass represents the largest untapped renewable energy option in the United States with an estimated annual availability of 491 million tons (U.S. Energy Information Agency).