Biomass energy consumption

A projection of biomass energy consumption in the United States for the years 2000, 2010, 2020, and 2030 is shown in Table 6 by end use sector (12). This analysis is based on a National Premiums Scenario which assumes that specific market incentives are appHed to aU. new renewable energy technology deployment. The scenario depends on the enactment of federal legislation equivalent to a fossil fuel consumption tax. Any incentives over and above those in place (ca 1992) for use of renewable energy will have a significant impact on biomass energy consumption. 

Table 6. Projected Biomass Energy Consumption in the United States from 2000 to 2030, EJ...

Economics for generating electricity from biogas can be favorable. Landfill gas from municipal solid waste can supply about 4 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. In 1997, a total of 90 trillion Btus were generated by landfill gas, about 3 percent of total biomass energy consumption. 

The market penetration of synthetic fuels from virgin and waste biomass in the United States depends on several basic factors such as demand, price, performance, competitive feedstock uses, government incentives, whether an established fuel is replaced by a chemically identical fuel or a different fuel, and the cost and availability of other fuels such as oil and natural gas. Many detailed analyses have been performed to predict the market penetration of biomass energy over the next 10 to 50 years. There seems to be a range from about 4 to 20 quads per year that characterize the growth of biomass energy consumption. All of these projections of future market penetrations for biomass energy in the United States should be viewed in the proper perspective. 

U.S. Market Penetration. Table 5 shows U.S. consumption of biomass energy ia 1990 and projected consumption for 2000 (10,11). The projected consumption for 2000 is about 50% greater than the consumption of biomass energy ia 1990. 

Refs. 10 and 11. Total energy consumption including biomass energy estimated to be 88.426 EJ ia 1990. 

Several important generalizations can be made. The first is that fossil fuel prices are primary competition for biomass energy. Table 28 summarizes 1990 U.S. tabulations of average, consumption-weighted, deflvered fossil fuel prices by end-use sector (90). The deflvered price of a given fossil fuel is not the same to each end user ie, the residential sector normally pays more for fuels than the other sectors, and large end users pay less. 

An interminable number of studies have been performed to predict future energy consumption patterns, resources, imports, and prices. If the predictions of higher oil prices had been accurate in the late 1970s, or if the oil price had stabilized at its peak in 1981, the biomass energy iadustry would have exhibited much greater growth than it has (128). 

At the low end is the United States, where biomass energy accounted for only about 3 percent (2.7 quadrillion Btus) of the total energy consumption in 1997. However, biomass use had been rising over the previous five years at an average rate of about 1 to 2 percent per year, but fell in 1997 due to a warmer-than-average heating season. Bioenergy produced in the United States is primarily from wood and wood waste and municipal solid waste. 

Moreover, Vietnam population is continuously increasing in the last decade. That situation together with the improvement of living standard pushes more pressure to energy supply. Primary energy consumption, excluding biomass, grew at an annual... 

Developing biomass energy can provide economic, political, social and environmental advantages. The energy potential of biomass has been estimated at almost 42 quadrillion Btus which is about 1/2 of the total energy consumption in the United States. Biomass provides the U.S. with about the same amount of energy as the nuclear industry. 

Great Plains of North America are stranded, without means for gathering and transmitting the energy to distant markets. The wind resources of the twelve Great Plains states in the USA, if fully harvested annually, would equal the entire energy consumption of the USA in 2002 (around 10 000 TWh) (see Leighty et al. (2006) and the discussion in Chapter 17). Earth s richest biomass and direct-insolation resources, like those in North Africa, are also stranded. 

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