Biomass: energy production, materials recovery, or both?

摘要

As a consequence of the increased focus on global warming, waste managers are increasing their use of biomass derived from organic solid waste as an alternative to fossil fuels to generate energy, thereby reducing carbon dioxide (CO_2) emissions and the associated impacts on climate change. Biomass includes materials such as sewage sludge, animal manure, food waste, paper/ packaging waste, yard and park waste, wood-based materials from demolition, forestry residues and several types of organic industrial wastes. Energy extraction mainly takes place by using various technologies including incineration (for food waste, packaging waste and demolition waste), anaerobic digestion (for animal manure, sewage sludge, organic industrial waste and food waste), composting, and thermal gasification (of forest waste and certain agricultural waste materials). A large fraction of the biomass, however, is still not utilized for energy purposes or material recycling but is applied for uses such as fertilization of agricultural soils (animal manure) or deposited in landfills.