Energy from biological processes

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This assessment responds to a request by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for an evaluation of the energy potential of various sources of plant and animal matter (biomass). This report complements an earlier OTA report on the Application of Solar Technology to Today's Energy Needs in evaluating the major solar energy resources available to the United States. The findings also will serve as part of the material to be used in an upcoming OTA assessment of synthetic fuels for transportation. This volume presents analyses of prominent biomass issues, summaries of four biomass fuel cycles, a description of biomass' place in two plausible energy futures, and discussions of policy options for promoting energy from biomass. The four fuel cycles - wood, alcohol fuels, grasses and crop residues, and animal wastes - were chosen because of their near- to mid-term energy potential and because of the public interest in them. A second volume presents technical analyses of the resource base, conversion technologies, and end uses that provide a basis for the discussion in this volume. Also included in Volume II are various unconventional approaches to bioenergy production as well as the use of biomass to produce chemicals.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: