Q6Power Generation Sources
Question
Q.6. Define biomass energy.
Answer
Biomass energy is renewable energy derived from organic matter (plant and animal waste, wood, agricultural residue) through combustion, biochemical, or thermochemical conversion into heat, electricity, or biofuels.
Biomass energy is the energy stored in organic materials — wood, crop residues, animal dung, municipal solid waste and energy crops — that can be released by direct combustion or converted via biochemical (anaerobic digestion, fermentation) or thermochemical (pyrolysis, gasification) processes into usable heat, electricity, biogas or liquid biofuels. Because the carbon released was recently absorbed from the atmosphere by the plants during photosynthesis, biomass is considered a renewable and near carbon-neutral energy source.