The Roaring Fork Biomass Consortium is composed of a group of non-profit entities who aim to evaluate biomass energy potential for the Greater Roaring Fork Valley and educate community members on the applicability of biomass fuel for regional heating, electricity, and fuel production.
About Biomass…
Biomass is humanity’s oldest, most primitive source of energy. It works by unleashing the solar energy stored within biological material, such as wood, bark, branches, shrubs, grass, corn, algae, and, yes, even poop!
We still use biomass energy much in the way we always have—through the direct combustion of woody and other organic material, for instance, when basking in the warmth of a crackling campfire or firing up a wood stove in a rustic mountain cabin. However, the same basic concept behind the production of electricity and heat in coal and gas-fired power plants can also accommodate the direct combustion of biomass. In this way, biomass can be burned in a boiler and the heat from this process diverted to make steam to spin a turbine that makes electricity, or the heat can be used directly for industrial and residential use, or both can happen at once! These three different systems are often referred to as Power-Only, Heat-Only, or Combined Heat & Power (“CHP”).
Another more sophisticated method of extracting energy from biomass is to gasify it. “Gasification” refers to the process of heating biomass in an oxygen-deprived environment. Instead of burning, the biomass is reduced to several byproducts, including a charcoal substance (often called “biochar”), and a synthetic gas (“syngas”), which can be burned to produce energy in a power plant. Gasification is more complicated, but it can also be more flexible and cleaner.
Surprisingly, biomass amounts to nearly 10% of the world’s energy supply today, but mostly in primitive forms in poorer regions. Modern use is commonplace in areas like Europe, where biomass energy provides more than 20% of the total energy supply of several countries, including Austria and Finland.
Here in Colorado, biomass is providing renewable and affordable heat for buildings of all types – from small homes heated by wood pellet stoves to larger campuses heated by commercial wood chip boilers. In the future, biomass will also help generate renewable electricity for our state.
Biomass can play an important role in the urgently needed transition to renewable energy, but careful case-by-case consideration is needed to ensure that biomass energy projects are clean, sustainable, reliable, and economical.
Biomass is humanity’s oldest, most primitive source of energy. It works by unleashing the solar energy stored within biological material, such as wood, bark, branches, shrubs, grass, corn, algae, and, yes, even poop!
We still use biomass energy much in the way we always have—through the direct combustion of woody and other organic material, for instance, when basking in the warmth of a crackling campfire or firing up a wood stove in a rustic mountain cabin. However, the same basic concept behind the production of electricity and heat in coal and gas-fired power plants can also accommodate the direct combustion of biomass. In this way, biomass can be burned in a boiler and the heat from this process diverted to make steam to spin a turbine that makes electricity, or the heat can be used directly for industrial and residential use, or both can happen at once! These three different systems are often referred to as Power-Only, Heat-Only, or Combined Heat & Power (“CHP”).
Another more sophisticated method of extracting energy from biomass is to gasify it. “Gasification” refers to the process of heating biomass in an oxygen-deprived environment. Instead of burning, the biomass is reduced to several byproducts, including a charcoal substance (often called “biochar”), and a synthetic gas (“syngas”), which can be burned to produce energy in a power plant. Gasification is more complicated, but it can also be more flexible and cleaner.
Surprisingly, biomass amounts to nearly 10% of the world’s energy supply today, but mostly in primitive forms in poorer regions. Modern use is commonplace in areas like Europe, where biomass energy provides more than 20% of the total energy supply of several countries, including Austria and Finland.
Here in Colorado, biomass is providing renewable and affordable heat for buildings of all types – from small homes heated by wood pellet stoves to larger campuses heated by commercial wood chip boilers. In the future, biomass will also help generate renewable electricity for our state.
Biomass can play an important role in the urgently needed transition to renewable energy, but careful case-by-case consideration is needed to ensure that biomass energy projects are clean, sustainable, reliable, and economical.
