The number of environmental problems is growing inexorably every year. Acidic precipitation has become our new challenge. Most often, acid precipitation is a product of human activity, the result of burning fuel for energy. When burned, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere. Quite inconspicuous, they mix with the elements of the atmosphere and return to humans in the form of acid precipitation, which cause enormous damage to the environment and pose a threat even to himself. Because of them, the soil loses its fertility, forests weaken and die, the waters become toxic to its inhabitants. The entire ecosystem of the planet is being disrupted. Buildings, city objects are damaged, and the person himself is at risk of developing asthma or oncology.
Рубрика: Без рубрики
Climat Article
One of the advantages of biomass fuel is that it is often a by-product, residue or waste-product of other processes, such as farming, animal husbandry and forestry.[2] In theory this means there is no competition between fuel and food production, although this is not always the case.[2] Land use, existing biomass industries and relevant conversion technologies must be considered when evaluating suitability of developing biomass as feedstock for energy.
Biomass is the material derived from recently living organisms, which includes plants, animals and their byproducts.[6] Manure, garden waste and crop residues are all sources of biomass. It is a renewable energy source based on the carbon cycle, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels. Another source includes Animal waste, which is a persistent and unavoidable pollutant produced primarily by the animals housed in industrial-sized farms.
There are also agricultural products specifically being grown for biofuel production. These include corn, and soybeans and to some extent willow and switchgrass on a pre-commercial research level, primarily in the United States; rapeseed, wheat, sugar beet, and willow (15,000 ha or 37,000 acres in Sweden) primarily in Europe; sugarcane in Brazil; palm oil and miscanthus[7] in Southeast Asia;[8] sorghum and cassava in China; and jatropha in India. Hemp has also been proven to work as a biofuel. Biodegradable outputs from industry, agriculture, forestry and households can be used for biofuel production, using e.g. anaerobic digestion to produce biogas, gasification to produce syngas or by direct combustion. Examples of biodegradable wastes include straw, timber, manure, rice husks, sewage, and food waste. The use of biomass fuels can therefore contribute to waste management as well as fuel security and help to prevent or slow down climate change, although alone they are not a comprehensive solution to these problems.
Biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy like methane gas or transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Rotting garbage, and agricultural and human waste, all release methane gas—also called “landfill gas” or “biogas.” Crops, such as corn and sugar cane, can be fermented to produce the transportation fuel, ethanol. Biodiesel, another transportation fuel, can be produced from left-over food products like vegetable oils and animal fats. Also, biomass to liquids (BTLs) and cellulosic ethanol are still under research.