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> Hopefully they'll start building onshore too and closing more of these ugly and polluting biomass plants What's the issue with these? Biomass plants take the
by mschuster91 2y ago
> Hopefully they'll start building onshore too and closing more of these ugly and polluting biomass plants
What's the issue with these? Biomass plants take the energy from biologically degradable farm and food waste that would otherwise decompose and degrade, releasing its energy as methane and other byproducts into the atmosphere, on either farm fields (where it contributes to overfertilization of fields and water bodies by runoff) or on dung piles/compost heaps.
Modern farming, particularly livestock farming, produces an awful lot of such waste that needs to be taken care of, and small but livestock-intensive countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands have to ship the biowaste across the EU because by EU regulations and practicality they cannot dispose of it domestically.
Biomass reactors make the process a whole lot easier. They take the biowaste, extract all energy they can by having bacteria and fungi break it down, burn the gas for electricity and district/local heating, and the solid remainder can then be landfilled safely.
- KaiserPro 2y agoI think you are mixing up three separate types of power generation > Biomass plants take the energy from biologically degradable farm and food waste that would Drax doesn't do that, drax burns wood pellets: https://www.drax.com/sustainability/sustainable-bioenergy/sourcing-sustainable-biomass/ https://www.drax.com/sustainability/sustainable-bioenergy/so... There are biowaste plants, I think there is one in thetford, but they are dirty and produce more CO2 per kwhr than gas (from what I recall, do check that first.) The thetford one is an incinerator, so requires a lot of processing to remove water. > Netherlands have to ship the biowaste thats because its really high in nitrates, and will kill waterlife should it run off. > Biomass reactors make the process a whole lot easier. not at scale. They are dirty, difficult to run and are dangerous at large scale. They often need to be heated. They also use a lot of water. You can use it to generate low grade heat though. but needs to be mixed with something like straw so that the balance of sloppy to twiggy is right (not a technical term...)