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The Biomass Heat Accelerator (BHA) aims to accelerate the uptake of this low-carbon source of energy. It is working with a range of the UK’s leading suppliers of biomass heating equipment to reduce the total cost of projects, and is also working to reduce risks in the fuel supply chain through quality assurance and information provision.
More broadly the aim of the project is to increase awareness and understanding of biomass heating technology among the customer base as a lack of this presently restricts wider market uptake.
What is Biomass?
Biomass is organic matter of contemporary biological origin (i.e. that was living recently). Biomass materials that are commonly used for energy purposes encompass a very broad range of resources ranging from wood through to sewage sludge, animal slurries and crops grown specifically for energy purposes.
Why use Biomass?
In energy terms, 'biomass' can be viewed as a form of stored solar energy: the sun's energy is captured and stored in the tissues of living material. This energy is released directly, e.g. by combustion (burning), or is converted into intermediate products which are then used to release the stored energy (e.g. refining, to produce liquid transport fuels or anaerobic digestion to produce 'biogas').
Biomass materials are currently used to provide heat, electrical and motive power. They already make an important contribution to the UK’s renewable energy supply, representing 82% on a primary input basis in 2006 which is 1.9% of total, inland primary energy consumption (source: BERR 'Energy in Brief').
Biomass has considerable untapped resource potential and, in future, could play a significant role in helping the UK to meet a range of existing renewable energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets.
The use of biomass energy has the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions if used to displace fossil fuels: while carbon dioxide is emitted during the processes of energy conversion (e.g. combustion), this is largely balanced by the carbon dioxide that has been captured in its own growth. Fresh growth on an annual cycle could recapture the emitted carbon dioxide, if resources are managed sustainably, and result in very low net emissions to the atmosphere.
Where biomass resources which would normally be discarded as wastes (such as wood offcuts, used pallets etc.) are used to displace fossil fuels, the savings are particularly significant as the alternative end-use for these 'wastes'may be landfill (e.g. waste wood) or to be spread on fields (e.g. animal slurries). In these situations, gases of decomposition such as methane would be released to the atmosphere which are far more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide alone (methane has a global warming potential 21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide)
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