Does biomass emit greenhouse gases

Answer 1

Yes, burning plants produce carbon dioxide, after all oxygen is flameable.

>Burning of any hydrocarbon generates carbon dioxide as a by-product. Plants are mainly composed of various glucose and cellulose polymers, which essentially are hydrocarbons, which when burned, release CO2 and leave an ash residue.

A rough example to consider the burning of hay. The black smoke released as a by-product of its incineration, is CO2 (along with other gases).

Answer 2

"Biomass" includes all animal and plant life on the planet, as well as all dead plant and animal tissues. Most living animals "respire" (breathe). In the process of respiration, they exhale carbon dioxide. Interestingly, insects make up about 90% of all animal biomass on the planet (humans make up only 3.33%). I've done some calculations, and it looks to me like insects, by merely breathing, exhale about 60% more carbon dioxide than the combined direct and indirect CO2 emissions of humans, including direct respiration, respiration of domesticated animals, industrial emissions, and emssions from the burning of fossil fuels. As for plant life, living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, in their own version of "respiration". However, that is not the whole story. When plants die, they rot, and when they rot, all the carbon stored in their tissues is released back into the atmosphere, as CO2. And so, an unmanaged forest is essentially carbon neutral, emitting (from the dead trees) just as much CO2 as the live trees absorb.

Answer 3

Biomass (burning of plant material) does add carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, but it is CO2 that was recently taken out of the atmosphere (when the plants were growing) so it doesn't add extra CO2. Burning biomass then is part of the natural carbon cycle which moves CO2 in and out of the atmosphere.

The carbon dioxide that comes from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) was taken out of the atmosphere millions of years ago, so releasing it now is adding extra CO2 (and causing global warming).

This is why biomass is renewable energy and much better than fossil fuels.

Answer 4

Yes, biomass (burning of plant material) adds carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere, but it is CO2 that was recently taken out of the atmosphere (when the plants were growing) so it doesn't add extra CO2. Burning biomass then is part of the natural carbon cycle which moves CO2 in and out of the atmosphere.

The carbon dioxide that comes from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) was taken out of the atmosphere millions of years ago, so releasing it now is adding extra CO2 (and causing global warming).

This is why biomass is renewable energy and much better than fossil fuels.

Answer 5

Yes it does. The difference is that biomass is part of the carbon cycle. Vegetation grows this year. It takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere (this is good). It is then burnt to generate electricity and it releases carbon dioxide (this is neutral, as it is the same carbon dioxide that it took out earlier in the year).

Biomass is so much better for the environment than fossil fuels, because fossil fuels took their CO2 out of the atmosphere millions of years ago, so releasing it now means it is extra and a burden that the carbon cycle can't deal with.

Answer 6

It doesn't phrased in that way. 1 ton of coal contains more carbon than 1 ton of biomass by a large amount. Because of this it takes more biomass to produce the same amount of power than a smaller amount of coal provides. This does not mean that biomass is worse for the environment, as it will take millions of years for the carbon contained in coal to 'become coal' again, while it will only take one growing season (in the case of energy crops), or 50-100 years (in the case of wood forests), to 'become biomass' again.