Vocab Terms
Energy produced from organic material such as plants, wood, agricultural waste, and animal manure. These materials are burned or converted into fuels to produce heat or electricity.
What is biomass energy?
Plants used for biomass absorb this gas from the atmosphere while they grow.
Biomass energy can contribute to this environmental problem if forests are cut down for fuel.
What is deforestation?
Fuels made from biological material.
What are biofuels?
Biomass energy can reduce the amount of this type of fuel that comes from underground.
What are fossil fuels?
Burning biomass can release this type of pollution that can harm air quality.
What is air pollution?
The process of burning a substance in oxygen to release heat and energy.
What is combustion?
Using leftover crops, wood, or food waste for energy helps reduce this environmental problem.
What is waste?
Since this requires a lot of energy to harvest/process, it has a relatively low energy return.
Energy that comes from natural sources that are constantly replenished, like sunlight, wind, and water.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide while they grow, and that carbon is released again when the plants are burned for energy. However, some extra carbon is still released during harvesting and transporting the biomass.
What is the reason why biomass energy is partially carbon neutral?
Biomass energy often requires large amounts of this natural resource to grow energy crops.
What is land?
A machine with blades that spin when moved by wind, water, or steam, and the spinning motion is used to produce energy, often to generate electricity.
What is a turbine?
This includes the energy being renewable, it using waste materials, and being partially carbon neutral.
What are the benefits of biomass energy listed in the slides.
This includes air pollution, deforestation, and low return on investment.
What are the drawbacks to biomass energy listed in the slides?