Biomass energy potential
Encouraging inventions
Using the whole tree
Energy from biomass - such as grain, grass, or wood-probably can meet 10 to 20 percent of US energy needs within 20 years, says a major new study. But there is no easy road to this benefit. Unless great care is taken, rapid development of this new energy supply could seriously damage the environment.
This is the main conclusion of an analysis by the US congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA).
Bioenergy today accounts for a little under 2 percent of US energy supply -mostly through wood burning In units of the quad - 1 quadrillion Btus -- that comes to about 1.5 quads a year. By the year 2000, OTA estimates, bioenergy in various forms could supply as many as 12 to 17 quads annually. The OTA notes that the Department of Energy projects annual consumption at 120 quads in 2000; but conservation could cut that to 90 quads a year or less.
The issue has already arisen in the grain-for-food-or-fuel controversy. Some observers, such as the World-watch Institute, have warned that diverting grain for fuel could cut into the world's food supply. "Gasohol" boosters have claimed, on the other hand, that alcohol production leaves a nutritious residue. The OTA notes that the residue, while nutritious, is no substitute for grain as food.
Similar choices of resource use will arise in making fuel from forests or crop residues. For example, OTA agrees with those soil experts who have questioned the wisdom of diverting "waste" material that now decays to enrich soils. This could be a particularly serious problem in forests intensively managed for energy production.
Soil depletion is part of the larger question of environmental side-effects of a bioenergy industry. The OTA warns that careless development of such an industry could be environmentally dangerous.
The first issue of the International Inventor Awards (IIA) newsletter appeared in autumn 1979. It was published by the Swedish Inventors' Association under a grant from the Swedish International Development Authority. The 1986 IIA programme is "an experiment aimed at exploring ways to stimulate indigenous creativity in developing countries by focusing on specific needs of global scope.''
Four prizes of US$60 000 each are to be given in 1986, one each in energy, water, forestry and industrial processes. Candidates will be proposed by boards of local, national and international organizations around the world. The newsletter, which is to appear 2-4 times a year, will include an "innovation roundup" summarizing recent innovations in the four target areas. The first issue, for example, describes a new device for log transport and another for using fungi to improve the growth of conifers.
The emphasis is on small-scale, decentralized, rural and environmentally sound innovations. The prize in industrial processes, for instance, will emphasize "low-cost industrial processes based on local resources." In forestry, the concerns are reforestation, rapid production and decentralized! use of wood. In water, the target is simple, low-maintenance devices for extracting and managing water resources. In energy, the aim is to fin methods and devices for decentralized, low-cost energy production, use and storage. Almost by their very nature, such innovations can be put to immediate use in developing countries.
The newsletter can be obtained by writing to the Swedish Inventors' Association, Munkbron 7, S-11128 Stockholm, Sweden.
Foresters continue to dream of being able to use the whole tree, and that dream seems to move a step closer to reality each year. At present, timber residues comprise about 35-40 percent of a tree's total fibre content. As sophistication in the wood products industry continues to grow, this percentage will dwindle. Better, more complete harvesting methods are being discovered; new ways of using needles, leaves, bark, stumps and sawdust continue to appear; and more efficient mills are reducing the volume of unusable shapes and sizes.
In the United Kingdom the Timber :Research and Development Association (TRADA) at High Wycombe believes that new stove designs will realize the potential of timber residues to be used as fuel. According to an article in The Guardian (England) by Michael Wigan, wood stoves in the UK have heretofore been less widespread and effective than they might be because wood is often burned while it is, still too wet, giving it a high tar content and causing it to choke up flues and chimneys. Stoves with drying compartments would help solve this problem.
Significant new research results have been obtained in the use of some kinds of needles from conifers. In Sweden, for instance, it has been shown that spruce and pine needles contain substances useful for animal feed, vitamin preparations and chemical feedstocks. Each year Latvia is manufacturing 200 000 tons of "muka", a vitamin meal made from pine needles.
With so many new uses being discovered, a policy dilemma is likely to pose itself for many countries. How many hectares should be afforested, reforested or intensively managed to take advantage of these new possibilities, especially considering that there is already much competition in ways to use land?
