Once seen as a promising solution in the battle against global warming, biomass energy is now being blamed for recent food shortages. This illustrates the fact that energy, resources and the environment are closely interrelated and that equal emphasis must be placed on each.
With more farmers growing corn to meet the demand for ethanol for car fuel, there is less corn being grown for either animal feed or to feed humans and the poor people are suffering as a result.
Although grain-converted biomass energy is a type of green energy that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, its conversion costs are far higher than oil production costs.
Even if the world’s oil supply were completely used up, it is unclear just how much grain could be grown from the limited supply of arable land.
Moreover, if the energy produced turns out to meet only a fraction of the world’s overall needs, we would experience much pain before seeing any benefits.
A recent World Bank report stated that producing biomass energy was a “crime against humanity” as it threatens food supplies and could lead to social instability in some countries.
It is regrettable that the reputation of biomass energy, which was originally trumpeted as natural and environmentally friendly, has been blackened in this way.
However, this is not surprising given that everyone — locally and internationally, from the academic to the corporate world — jumped on the bioethanol bandwagon in their rush toward new technologies to be researched and business opportunities to be exploited.
Back in the 1970s, the idea of biomass energy was not limited to planting crops to produce energy. It was using the anaerobic fermentation of pig manure and all sorts of organic waste to produce methane for burning or power generation.
This method, which both reduced pollution and recycled energy, was more popular than wind and solar power and was seen as the most economically efficient form of reusable energy. The technology was quite mature and its application was commonplace.
Unfortunately, in comparison with ethanol and other kinds of biofuels, it hardly registers now in terms of overall attention or government efforts at promotion and financial support.
Academic and research circles see this as old technology. Nobody appears interested in exploring this field further to fix key application problems. Instead, everyone is attracted to the latest fad.
However, with their effectiveness unproven and their lower economic benefits, the focus seems to be misplaced.
Local sources of organic waste material that can produce methane biomass energy include kitchen waste, pig manure, fruit and vegetable waste, sewer waste and garbage dumps.
My calculations show that potential methane production from such sources would be nearly 500 million cubic meters, which could produce 800 million kilowatt hours.
This would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 600,000 tonnes, which is no mean feat.
Unfortunately, methane easily disperses and is difficult to collect, and so much of it is wasted and causes serious pollution.
However, if a systematic method of collection could be set up for these waste materials to be collected for energy production, it would not only be far more efficient than allocating valuable land resources for energy crops, but also more humane.
Chen Wen-ching is an environmental technical consultant for the Pingtung County Government.
TRANSLATED BY JAMES CHEN
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