some disadvantages of bio energy
Answers
Bioenergy helps stimulate regional economic development and employment by providing new, decentralised and diversified income streams from bioenergy and biomass production. This gives landholders more market options for their traditional agricultural and tree crops and for their use of waste streams such as manures.
Answer:
It’s Not Completely Clean
While biomass is a carbon neutral fuel source, it is not completely clean.
Burning wood and other plant life does create other emissions in addition to carbon. These can pollute the local environment, even if the effects are not as drastic as they may be from fossil fuels.
Some organizations, such as the Partnership for Policy Integration, point to biomass fuels as air polluters. When compared to other renewables, such as water, this lack of clean emissions is a major disadvantage.
High Costs In Comparison To Other Alternatives
While the cost of extracting biomass fuels is lower than most types of fossil fuels, they still generally exceed those of many other forms of renewable energy.
In some cases, biomass projects are considered not to be worth the price of completion, especially when solar, water and wind alternatives are available.
This cost comes from the need of biomass resources to be maintained, and for extracted biomass to be replanted. Furthermore, the cost of the machinery used in extraction is also a factor, as it transportation of the biomass.
Possible Deforestation
Though biomass fuels are renewable, they also need to be maintained. Failure to do this can lead to widespread deforestation.
This is a major environmental issue. It massively cuts down on the habitable areas available to scores of species of wildlife, leading to extinctions.
This is a major factor that holds back the use of biomass fuels on a large scale, as replanting efforts may not be able to keep up with the amount of fuel needed.
Space
A large amount of space is needed to grow the materials that are used in biomass energy. This space is not always going to be available, particularly in built-up areas, like cities.
This also limits the areas where biomass energy power plants can be built, as they need to be close to the sources of the fuel to cut down on transportation and other costs.
This makes them less favorable when compared to solar power, which requires less space and is installable in cities and other populated areas. Finally, the land used could also have been used to grow crops, which is particularly important given the large population of the planet.
It Requires Water
An often unseen disadvantage of biomass energy is the amount of water needed in production. All plants need water to live, which means sources must be available at all times.
Not only does this lead to increased costs in terms of irrigation, but it may result in water sources becoming less available to people and wildlife.
Furthermore, with water itself being an alternative form of energy, which is also far cleaner than biomass energy, it raises the question of why the water isn’t used for that purpose instead.
It Has Inefficiencies
While biomass fuels are natural, they are also not as efficient as processed fossil fuels, like petroleum and gasoline.
In fact, biodiesel and comparable biofuels are often combined with small amounts of fossil fuels to make them more effective.
This, in turn, reduces these biofuels’ effectiveness as a means to cut down on use of fossil fuel resources.
It’s Under Development
More needs to be done to harness the potential that biomass energy has. However, it is held back as an alternative fuel source by many of the disadvantages mentioned here.
When compared to the likes of solar and water sources, biomass is inefficient and under-researched.
In fact, scientists are still working on ways to make it more efficient. Until that barrier is crossed, it is unlikely that biomass energy will be adopted as a viable alternative fuel source on a wide scale.