By Rubina Obaid
www.asianbiomass.com
According to the latest research done by the Universities of Maine and Ohio, it has been studied that high demand for bioenergy may increase the amount of carbon sequestration by the forests and due to higher turnover greater replanting and better forest management would be encouraged.
Wood is considered as one of the most popular source of renewable energy, as climate pollution which is released by burning fuel made of wood or its byproducts is absorbed by the trees that are grown to replace them. When wood is burnt in power plants, the smoke is passed through several filters and the plume that is emitted is not considered as harmful. The concept also advocates the economic incentive of clearing out excess woods to avoid forest fire and allowing remaining trees to grow stronger and healthier. The assumption is countered by the latest research published by Science Advances, as the assumption ignores the ability of a tree to absorb carbon dioxide, that is been lost in the process of cutting down and pelletized. Even though wood has become the largest source that is counted as renewable energy and replaced coal to the wood secret of clean power plants.
In order to feed the growing appetite of power plants for burning woods forests are being cut down to accelerate the wood pellet sector growth. Drax, once UK’s largest coal power plant along with Europe and US, has grounded coal to wood power plant and receiving hundreds of millions of dollars as climate subsidies and huge publicly funded payouts for virtually guaranteed profits for moving towards climate neutrality. While wood is largest source of biomass, it is also obtained through other organic matters such as crop waste and even garbage. Then the material is used for running steam turbines to produce electricity and heat as a by-product. That can further be used at homes and biofuel for transportation in order to curtail the use of fossil fuel.
Industrial revolution greatly contributed in global warming and became the wreak of rising global temperature that has risen more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This warns for bleak future of the planet unless climate pollution is not radically reduced. Therefore, world needs to rely on both biomass fuels and creating new forests. However, it is still controversial to measure climate pollution generated from wood fuel and how much is sucked back by the forests from the air. Some forests are responsible to provide fuel to power plants and other natural and plantation forests are left to grow. It takes centuries to use older natural forests for wood energy and achieve climate benefits as plantation forests take decades to centuries
According to the latest research done by the Universities of Maine and Ohio, it has been studied that high demand of bioenergy may increase the amount of carbon sequestration by the forests and due to higher turnover greater replanting and better forest management would be encouraged. Moreover, efficient climate policies must be administered for biomass in order to identify the amount of carbon dioxide which is been released and the amount of carbon sequestration by the forests. Whereas, the accounting for carbon is really complex because it is also dependent upon the type of soil, weather, type of trees also the process through which wood secret of clean power has been transported and burnt.
Reference links:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/27/world/science-health-world/burning-wood/#.Xn8kkIYzbIU
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/burning-wood-can-be-a-clean-source-of-power-after-all-1.1412309
