Everything we do is connected to energy in one way or another. Energy powers our vehicle and planes. Energy warm our homes, cooks our food, plays music and gives us pictures on television. So energy derives our day to day activities, at home and business or offices. Concern for generation and access to avoidable energy remain issue of national topic with energy trapped in diverse and many resource in our immediate environment remains unharness for human utilization. Biomass is one of the available national resource and sometime depicted as waste that has potentials for generation of sustainable energy. Generally, biomass as matter can be considered as garbage .Some of it include stuff lying around our environment which may include dead trees, tree branches, wood chips(like heaps of corn chaff or rice husk) , bark and sawdust from lumber mills. BIOMASS AS SOURCES OF ENERGY. Biomass is considered as the solar energy stored in chemical form in plant and animal materials and it is among the most precious and versatile resources on earth. It provides not only food but also building materials, paper, fabrics, medicines and chemicals. Biomass has been use for energy purpose ever since man discover fire. In the world today due to the technology development biomass fuel can be use for tasks ranging from heating the house to running electrical and electronic appliances. If we burn plant and animal efficiently( extract the energy stored in the chemical bonds), oxygen from the atmosphere combines with the carbon in plants to produce carbon dioxide and water. The process is cyclic because the carbon dioxide is then available to produce new biomass. The use of biomass help to reduce global warming compare to a fossil fuel_powered plant. Plants use and store carbon dioxide(C02) stored in plant is released when the plant materials is decays . When another crops has been planted, the plant can use the C02 produce by burned plants. Biomass can emit carbon dioxide that will contributed toward global warming, if the crops are not afforestation. So the use biomass is reduced, recycled and then reused. Today a new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. One way is to produce ethanol, a liquid alcohol fuel. Ethanol can be used in special types of cars that are made for using alcohol fuel instead of gasoline. The alcohol can also be combined with gasoline. This reduces our dependence on oil or fossil fuel.
RELATIONSHIP OF BIOMASS WITH RENEWABLE AND NONRENEWABLE ENERGY.
All energy forms derived from biomass sources are renewable. Renewable energy source is such of energy sources that can be regenerated in a short period of time after prosper used. But nonrenewable energy sources can not be regenerated in short period of time. Its mainly sourced from the ground as liquids, gases and solids. For instance crude oil, natural gas and coal, respectively. These products are essentially biomass as they formed from the buried remain of plants and animals that lived million of years ago. Environmental impacts create threat to a significant distinction between biomass and fossil fuels. When a plant decays it releases most of its energy back into the atmosphere. In contrast, fossil fuels are locked away deep in the ground and do not affect the earth's atmosphere unless they are burned. Increase in prices of fuel, high rate of demand for energy and global warming are the pinpoint factors control high interest in renewable energy sources and biomass in particular. The best option energy source is biomass as it is available in huge amounts and production of some form of energy from biomass is costly low. BIOMASS UTILIZATION NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. The one of key renewable resource of the future at small and large scale levels is biomass. Three quarters of the world's population living in developing countries biomass is the most important source of energy, and it also supplies 14% of the word's primary energy consumption. Increase in number of people and per capita demand, and depletion of fossil fuel resource, the demand for biomass is expected to increase rapidly in developing countries. Biomass play a curical role in global source in developing countries well into the next century. A number of developed countries use this source quite substantially, for instance in Austria and Sweden, 15% of their primary energy consumption is covered by biomass. Sweden has plans to rise further use of biomass as it phases down unclear and fossil_fuel plants in the near future. In the USA, which derives 4% of its total energy from biomass( nearly as much as it derives from unclear power), now more than 9000MW electrical power is installed in facilities firing biomass(Keeney and Deluca, 1992, Rosentrater, 2009). Biomass can be use to produce ethanol( biofuel) which could reduce importation to 50%. Massive available land and agricultural infrastructure the biomass reserve could, sustainably, revamp the epileptic supply of energy generated through the hydro_power plants without any serious threat to food security. Some countries like Nigeria has huge required resource for biomass production. The climatic condition and ecological ambience are good for growth of energy crops .
Cultivation of energy crop to extraction of ethanol or biodiesel can be exploited as a means of generating employment opportunities. TRANSFORMATION OF BIOMASS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY. The transformation of biological substances, which would otherwise end up as land fill waste into heat and electricity is an exciting area that has a great deal of potential to produce energy from previously untapped sources without directly polluting the ecosystem. Materials produced from plant matter, crops, forest waste can in solid form or through a wide range of conversion and refining processes, made into liquids or gases which may be use generate electric power, heat or fuel. Biomass can be used in a majority of man_ made materials, e.g Medicines, construction materials, chemicals and fabrics to providing solids fuels and gas. Biomass is organic matter just like fossil(coal, oil or natural gas), the difference is that fossil fuels were formed in the earth from plant and animal remains over millions of year, while biomass on the other hand is more recently created and is renewable on a much smaller time scale ad plants grow continuously, animals constantly produce manure and people throw away waste materials everyday. Many people believe that bio_based products including Bioenergy and biofuels will be a major renewable energy source for the future. IMPORTANT OF BIOMASS AS ENERGY SOURCE. (1) when the energy is properly used, it will meet a sizeable percentage of the country's demands for fuel as well as energy. (2) Waste from urban and industrial locations can be converted to fuel in boilers and as a feedstock for producing methane and some liquid fuels.( 3) The production of biomass helps in developing cheaper source of energy from unutilized agricultural residues, waste, forest wastes, plantations etc. which is an alternative source of energy for fossil fuel energies. ECONOMICS IMPLICATION OF BIOFUEL AND FOOD SECURITY. There are obvious factors that may lead to food shortage and price increase beside production of biofuel from biomass. This factors include combination of policies which were biased towards commodity export crops and large acreage increases of such crops, hyper_inflation, currency devaluation and price control of domestic foodstuffs.