Lewis.Lee.wiki.spring.2011

====__**What is our current problem at hand, and what are people doing about it?-**__Currently our home planet earth is going through major changes. Today in 2011, scientist have been doing research and have developed the theory of global warming. Global warming results from what is known as the green house affect. This is when the heat and light from the sun enters our atmosphere, but when it tries to escape, pollution is preventing it. This is commonly compared to as a car sitting outside in the sun all day. The heat enters but can not escape and it becomes so hot that when you first open the door you can feel the heat pouring out of it. This problem is happening because our human race is releasing so much CO2 that we are causing major damage to our atmosphere. Some people believe that there is no such thing as global warming. They say that earths core is just heating up and cooling down like it naturally does over long periods of time. These types of people are just being stubborn and are to lazy to try to help solve this major problem that we are faced with. Currently, there are plenty of people trying to figure out ways to produce massive amounts of energy besides burning fossil fuels, along with decreasing pollution. The major issue with trying to solve this problem is that it is way easier said than done.==== ====Global warming today has already caused many major issues regarding flooding, rising sea levels, and abnormal or severe weather. All of which leads to problems causing damage to plant and animal life. For instance, look at the current problems that have occurred to the Mississippi river. The Mississippi river is having severe flooding problems which is forcing animals to adapt and move to different places. Also, all of the areas where flooding has occurred has killed most of the plants and trees that surround it. Same problem occurs with the rising of our oceans. Island are becoming smaller and smaller making less and less room for wild life. Killing plants and trees is a huge problem because they consumer CO2 instead of letting it go into our atmosphere. Instead of cutting down trees to make room for more houses, people need to start planting them.==== ====The biggest issue resulting from global warming is the problems caused by severe weather. As we know, our oceans have been gradually warming up. This is because the top ten warmest years on records have come after 1983, and seven of those ten after 1990. Due to warmer weather and ocean water being warmer than usual, hurricanes are more likely to occur and be more severe. As we have seen in 2004 and 2005, the damages caused by hurricanes were devastating. For instance, hurricane Katrina caused an estimate of 81.5 billions dollars in damage. Imagine if hurricanes with that much force starting hitting areas around the world each year. Beside all of the people that would be killed. The amount of money and time that it costs to rebuild would put countries into huge economic deficits. Global warming also increases the probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves. While some countries will have increases in rainfall, areas such as Africa are predicted to have terrible droughts. Africa already has a shortage of water and they can not afford to go through any major droughts. These severe weather issues are only going to continue to get worse if we do not make a change in the way we live.==== ====Currently the global population keeps increasing. This is not a good thing at all because resources are becoming more and more limited. More people means more houses need to be built. Forests all over the world are being cut down to make room for developments. Also more people means more car are going to be driving around leading to more pollution. The largest problem that humans bring to the table is that they do not care. You hear people say things such as," Why should I care, I am not going to live that long" With this attitude, our environment could seriously be in for some trouble.==== ====Today Scientists have no doubt that the climate changes that have been occurring are directly related to the significant amount of fossil fuels that we burn. By burning so much fossil fuel, we have released way to much CO2 into our atmosphere. Which leads to pollution building up in the atmosphere, resulting in average temperature increase on earth. People are now becoming more aware of the dangers that can result from global warming. You see signs everywhere today convincing people to "Go Green". Car companies are designing hybrid cars that use minimum gasoline to maximize how many miles you can drive per gallon. Other companies such as Poland Spring have designed water bottles with less plastic and smaller caps to help our environment. Also groups of people are going around planting trees to help reduced CO2. All of these little things help, but the biggest problem is finding an alternative energy source besides the burning of fossil fuels. Luckily the good news is that in twenty to thirty years we will have burned through all of the fossil fuels that we have. The bad news is that there are no other alternative energy sources that can currently take its place.==== ====**__How it works?- __**Biomass is a fairly simple process utilizing the steam cycle much like what is found on steam ships or in nuclear power plants. In the biomass process there needs to be four main components; the fuel, the boiler, the water and the turbine. A simple way to look at biomass is to look at it as if it is the Rankine cycle. In biomass the fuel can be any natural material this can be from; logs, forest debris, forest undergrowth, sawmill waste, straw, agricultural waste and or scrap lumber taken from construction sites. This fuel is ground into small chips and mixed together. These chips are fed along with air into the boilers fire box. Here the heat and oxygen burn the fuel producing thermal energy. This energy then is transferred through convection, conduction and radiation into the boilers water through the generation tubes and the steam drum. After steam is produced in the steam drum the steam is fed to the super heater where sensible heat is added to the steam. This steam can reach upwards of 500 degrees Celsius. This superheated steam passes out of the boiler and through pipes to the turbines. In the turbines the steam expands giving off its thermal energy causing the turbine blades to spin in upwards of 3000 RPM. After the steam has passed through the turbine and given off all of its thermal energy it goes to the condenser where cooler water coming from an external source condenses it back to liquid. From here the water is fed back into the boiler and is run through the cycle over and over again. This cooling water comes from usually one of three sources; either the water comes from a nearby river or it comes from an underground well or it comes from a closed circuit cooling system utilizing tanks and cooling towers to disperse the heat in the cooling water elsewhere and help to condense the steam best. The turbines are not directly connected to a generator because of the inefficiency of such a high spinning generator. The turbines are fed through a variety of reduction gears in order to get a slower RPM and to therefore make the generator much more efficient. The other product of using biomass is the ash and soot that is produced when the fuel is burnt. This is a very useful by product because this can be sold or given to farmers to spread on fields help the crops. This by product could even be used to help the next fuel to be grown. The energy that is made in the generator is fed through a substation and into the grid where it can power homes and businesses all over the world. ====

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====**__How much CO2 is produced or used up- __**This is a very challenging problem as there are many factors in determining the CO 2  that is produced from a boiler burning biomass. The amount of CO 2  that is produced varies according to the fuel being fed into the boiler, the cleanliness of the boiler and how the material is harvested. In theory biomass should be one hundred percent CO 2  free but in actuality this varies a lot depending on many things. In theory the carbon that the plants use to grow would equal the CO 2  emissions of the plant but unfortunately this is not true. The quality of the fuel being fed into the boiler effects the CO 2  output because if the fuel has too high of a water content then incomplete firing will happen leaving a smoke that is high in CO 2 . The cleanliness effects the amount of CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> output because if there is a high amount of soot on the boiler tubes then the efficiency decreases therefore increasing the CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> output. Another way in which the cleanliness of the plant affects the CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is the filters before the smoke exits the stack. If a high efficiency cyclone filter is used then less CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is released into the air. If a lesser filter is used such as a particulate filter then more CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is released into the air. Lastly the way in which the fuell is harvested affects the CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">output. If there is an efficient way to harvest the wood then the CO <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 10.6667px;">2 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> emissions decrease. Usually fuel is harvested either with diesel machines cutting trees in the forest of harvesters mowing fields. This is inefficient way to harvest but other ways are much better and more efficient. One way to increase efficiency is to use scrap lumber from house construction and demolitions. Another way to increase the efficiency of the harvesting method of fuels is to use fuel that has been gathered either as a byproduct of food harvesting or a fuel that is collected during the construction of roads and other things that would require the harvesting of wood products. ====

====**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What is the best fuel for Biomass? - __**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As you can see in the chart that follows there are some fuels that are much better for biomass fuel than others. Of the fuels there is much discrepancy in the choice because of the price and the availability. Because biomass uses a boiler to generate the steam the best fuel is the one with the most BTU’s so the most amount of energy is produced form each pound of fuel, therefore crating the most steam and therefore generating the most energy. The prices are all taken from the Cape Cod area and are generated using simple calculations. ====

====**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Disadvantages of biomass __**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- The main problems that biomass has is that depending on the season there is a huge difference in the price for the fuel. Depending on the region there is also a problem in fuel availability. If you live in the north fuel to burn in the winter is harder and more laborious to harvest, this is especially problematic because this is when the largest demand is. Another problem with the winter is if for fuel you are using purpose grown fuel. In the north the fuel will not grow in the winter so the fuel will have to be stored all winter and into the spring. This causes another problem because per cubic foot there are more BTUs per oil or petroleum product than there is with biomass. This means that a lot of area has to be set aside for fuel storage and prevision has to be made in order to keep it dry. This means that barns have to be made and there has to be a ventilation system and a system that allows the fuel to be removed with minimal work. The last problem is the water that is required to run a biomass plant. This causes problems because there needs to be a large consistent source of water. There are two options for this. The first option is to use storage tanks that hold the water and make it reusable, this solution causes another problem. If you need to reuse the water and store it in tanks then you needs to have a method to cool it. There are two common solutions to this, if you build cooling towers to cool the water that has oppositions from the public because it blocks views and the horizon. Another solution to cooling the water is to drill deep holes and use the temperature of the ground to cool the water. This also has one main disadvantage because the deep drilling and lining these holes with piping is a very expensive process; this makes the whole biomass plant ineffective plant because the price to start up the plant is too high therefore investors do not want to pay to build the plant. The other way to get a consistent flow of water is to take it from a lake pond or an ocean. All of these have problems also. The problem with the lake is that during the summer when the draw from the power plant is highest the lake levels are the lowest this just lowers the lake more this upsets recreational boaters because many docks have clearance issues and the boats motors hit the bottom or the hulls get hung up on the lake bottom. The problem with the river suction set up is during summer when the flow in the river is at the lowest the draw is also at the highest. When this happens the environmental protection agencies stop the draw from the river and therefore the plant has to be shut down. The last solution has the biggest problems, drawing from an ocean means that all the pipes and the pumps and valves have to be made of similar metals that are all non-corrosive. The problem with this is that in order to do this effectively you need to use stainless steel pipes therefore the price is high and investors do not want to pay the building costs. ====

====**__Advantages of Biomass-__**Biomass has great potential to be a major alternative energy source. Biomass comes from the mass of living or recently dead plants and animals. This means that there are massive amounts of potential energy everywhere. There is not many places on this earth were a biomass plant would not be able to gather plants or animals. It is not like solar or wind power were somedays energy might not be able to be produced. Also, biomass is renewable, very cheap, and abundant compared to these other alternative sources. Building biomass plants would create lot of jobs for our economy. Not only would it create jobs to build these plants, but once they are running you need people to go out an collect the materials that are necessary to run the plant. Another major plus when running biomass plants is that they are very low in sulfur which reduces the production of acid rain. When biomass plants are run on a small scale, it takes more energy to run them than to produce the fuel that is being gained. This is just the opposite when running on a large scale. When biomass is running on a massive scale it becomes amazingly efficient and could be a very feasible energy source. To make biomass plants more efficient, we need to build them in places were large amounts of the raw materials needed to run the plant are close by. Today currently, the problem is that it is way more expensive to extract biomass from the environment and transfer it than the process of fossil fuels. To decrease the cost significantly, the energy created must be used in surrounding areas that are close to the plants. Also scientist are doing research on different types of biomass energy sources known as biogas or landfill gas. The main ingredient involved is methane which is produced when plants and animals decay. Hopefully scientist will be able to find a way to make biomass way more efficient than it currently is today. Biomass, with a few more years of research has tons of potential to become a very effective alternative energy source.====

====**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Who uses biomass- __**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Biomass energy is used for all sorts of applications. These applications can range from heating of a facility such as a hospital or a college. Another way that biomass energy is used is for power generation such as in a power plant. This is the most common type of biomass plant. It us used all over the country but are not all that common because of the fuel availability problems that arise. Companies use biomass because it is a simple installation and if it is kept small as in the situation of a heating power plant the cost instantly is repaid. Another reason companies install biomass plants is that the fuel is cheap if in the right part of the country. In a region where there is lots of saw mills and logging operations there is plenty of mill waste and other wood products from the operations of logging and felling trees. These two operations cause lots of fuel from either the milling operation of lumber or the process of stripping trees of their limbs or the creation of logging roads. ====

__**Amount of biomass used at different plants**__-
 * plant name || Annual BDT Arg. Waste burned/ year || annual BDT urban Waste Burned/year || total Annual BDT burned/year ||
 * A || 49584 || 12227 || 61811 ||
 * B || 125838 || 49321 || 175159 ||
 * C || 330362 || 141945 || 471945 ||
 * D || 21147 || 63442 || 84589 ||
 * E || 41028 || 88655 || 129683 ||
 * F || 8660 || 83379 || 92027 ||
 * G || 117202 || 106590 || 223796 ||
 * H || 21992 || 50674 || 72666 ||
 * I || 81198 || 81189 || 162378 ||
 * average || 88556.77778 || 75269.11111 || 163783.7778 ||

__**What biomass fuel is best**__
 * Type of fuel being burned || weight of cord of green wood || weight of cord of dry wood || dry cords per BDT || cost per BDT 2240 lbs || BTUs available per BDT ||
 * construction waste || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 16531200 ||
 * cedar bark || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 17600000 ||
 * forest slash || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 17000000 ||
 * mill residue || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 14300000 ||
 * sawdust || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 7700000 ||
 * pallet wood || NA || NA || NA || 0 || 1389518 ||
 * pine || 3200 || 2720 || 0.823529412 || 61.76470588 || 8282000 ||
 * oak || 5600 || 4760 || 0.470588235 || 105.8823529 || 7990000 ||
 * maple || 5300 || 4505 || 0.497225305 || 87.01442841 || 8400000 ||
 * birch || 4500 || 3825 || 0.585620915 || 93.69934641 || 9581600 ||
 * straw || NA || NA || NA || 105 || 16800000 ||
 * pellet wood || NA || NA || NA || 204.8 || 18592000 ||
 * corn || NA || NA || NA || 336 || 16128000 ||

"Well-planned sustainable biomass power plants are a viable source of clean renewable electricity, and thus are helpful for the task of phasing out coal-fired power plants. Knee-jerk opposition to all biomass projects has no sound scientific basis and is harmful to attempts to stabilize climate for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and future generations. In my opinion, the proposed 100 MW Gainesville Renewable Energy Center deserves support and is a useful step toward the essential task of phasing out coal emissions."
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What the experts are saying __**


 * - James E. Hansen**

//Climate Scientist, Columbia University, Dept. of Earth & Environmental Science// "The forest products industry as we know it today has helped to build our state's economy and culture by providing a sustainable supply of wood products, jobs for rural communities and an enhanced quality of life for many people. The industry adds over $16 billion to the state's economy and provides a multi-million dollar tax base to support local schools, roads and support services."


 * – Jeff Doran**

//Executive Vice President of the Florida Forestry Association// ""Florida could be the Saudi Arabia of biomass. We have the waste, like citrus peels, forestry waste and sugar cane waste. And we've got the land, the climate and the rainfall to grow fuels like pine trees and eucalyptus."


 * – Tommy Boroughs**

//charter member of the advisory board of the Florida Engineering Systems Consortium;//

//former chair, Florida Energy Commission; Governor's Energy and Climate Action Team// "Gainesville's choice to go with biomass is a strategic decision. After six years of research and a vibrant public discussion, the City Commission approved the biomass plant based on a thorough evaluation of alternatives, including other renewables and traditional fuel sources like coal and natural gas. Investing in biomass as the primary renewable energy source is the most cost-effective, long-term option currently available in Florida and provides added benefits to the community."


 * – Bob Hunzinger**

//General Manager of Gainesville Regional Utilities// "Here in Florida, biopower companies are already proposing projects to create energy from materials that would otherwise be land filled or burned openly in slash piles. In rural areas in particular, providing opportunities for municipalities and counties to create their own energy with area-grown resources, including short-rotation woody crops, is exciting from both a renewable energy and an economic development standpoint."


 * – Charles H. Bronson**

//Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services// "We know that approximately 1.6 million tons per year of forest residues (about 60% of the total) is burned in the open within the 75 mile radius of Gainesville. About 600,000 tons of this, it is estimated, would be sent to the biomass plant, and it is reasonable to assume that 60% of this amount would also have been open burned. When burned in the open the same amount of wood would generate approximately 2.7 million pound of particulate matter, 90% of which is PM 2.5. As a comparison, this is 10 times the particulates emitted by the GRU Deerhaven coal-powered electricity plant in 2009."


 * – The late Kathy Cantwell, M.D.**

//former member of the Alachua County Air Quality Commission and the Gainesville Energy Advisory Committee//

__**Sources used**__ http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions/ || http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/global_warming_101/ http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-biomass-energy-works.html || http://www.biomass.net/The-Future-of-Biomass-Energy.html http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes/ http://www.causesofglobalwarming.net/ http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/sciencetech/5-deadliest-effects-of-global-warming/276 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=10-solutions-for-climate-change&page=3 ||
 * [|Log Cord Weight Calculator] ||
 * [|Dry ton definition of Dry ton in the Free Online Encyclopedia.] ||
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 * [|H82.pdf (application/pdf Object)] ||
 * [|Pellet and Wood burning stoves and corn burners as Alternative heating for your home] ||
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 * [|cost of heating corn per ton - Google Search] ||
 * [|White Birch Firewood - seasoned - unsplit, Cut to length -]
 * [|cost of pellet wood per ton - Google Search] ||
 * [|what are pallets made of - Google Search] ||
 * [|cape cod all for sale / wanted classifieds " bale of hay" - craigslist] ||
 * [|pelletstoves101.pdf (application/pdf Object)]
 * [|cape cod all for sale / wanted classifieds "pallet" - craigslist] ||
 * [|cape cod all for sale / wanted classifieds "birch firewood" - craigslist] ||
 * http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/heating_value_wood ||
 * http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/5730/Energy_Forest_ocr.pdf?sequence=1 ||
 * http://www.aggregaterecycling.com/services-wood.html ||
 * http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/biomass-energy-disadvantages.html ||
 * http://www.keyframe5.com/biomass-energy-pros-and-cons/ ||
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