Litter and waste provide a tidy solution

By Dan Ilett
Published: November 3 2008 02:00

The United Nations Foundation says that heavier use and manufacturing of biomass fuels in West Africa could help to cut poverty and boost economic development.
The organisation argues that biomass - fuel derived from plant material, wood, agricultural and municipal waste - could aid these countries to "avoid high food and oil prices and open up new economic opportunities".
West Africa is not the only region eyeing up biomass as an attractive source of energy. Whether that source is a pure alternative to fossil fuels or just a cleaner addition is yet to be seen. But many other countries have started using it in projects ranging from coal-powered energy stations down the chain to wood-burning stoves in homes that warm central heating systems.
"Biomass means you can keep fossil fuels underground," says Gaynor Hartnell, deputy director of the Renewable Energy Association. "If you burn wood, there are still trees growing. If you burn waste, we produce this all the time.
"There will be some carbon, but it's not the same as it is using fossil fuels. It makes a lot of sense to use it, as a lot is a by-product of crop waste. You can have dedicated plants that can burn litter or waste wood or combined heat and power schemes that take briquettes."
There are many different sources of biomass. Ms Hartnell argues that methane emitted from landfill and sewage gas are regarded as biomass, as is olive cake (the pulp left over from making olive oil), straw, and the cut-offs from wood.
Many of these materials, especially wood and straw, are made into pellets for a larger surface area to make the biomass burn better.
Drax Power is currently building a co-firing biomass injection system at its 4,000MW power station in Yorkshire to burn coal and biomass pellets together.
"We've been in biomass for about five years to cut CO 2 ," says Melanie Wedgbury, external relations for Drax Power. "If you use it to produce electricity, it's deemed to be carbon neutral."
While some people argue carbon neutrality is something of an oxymoron, the company believes the biomass initiative will by 2010 power around 12.5 per cent (500MW) of the station.
"Typically, 2 to 3 per cent of our output has been biomass," adds Ms Wedgbury. "The engineers say we could go up to 20 per cent for co-fired, but biomass is different to coal. It's got two-thirds of the heat but it's a very efficient way of burning materials."
There are many companies in the biomass field however, as there are many sources, processes and final products of the fuel.
For instance, Drax awarded Doosan Babcock a £10m contract to build the co-firing stations, but local farmers provide the fuel.
In the case of bin-bag-waste biomass, local governments are the providers, but other firms carry out processing, packaging and sales. Land Energy, for example, plans to generate renewable power from virgin wood, by producing and selling wood pellets. The company is building plants in Wales, Scotland and England, at sites close to forests.
O-Gen is set to build 15 plants around the UK to convert biomass into a combustible gas, which is then used to produce heat and power around the country.
"The type of land that biomass is grown on is marginal land - not high quality," adds Ms Wedgbury. "The materials are all very well and good but they have to be sustainable. That's the big issue in biomass as you know the food versus fuel debate with bioethanol."
According to the WWF, "bioenergy [also known as biomass] production can have negative environmental impacts such as acidification, eutrophication or summer smog. The production of energy crops can also have negative impacts depending on what agricultural or forestry methods are used."
But it adds that, worldwide, "biomass could deliver 9 per cent of global primary energy and 24 per cent of electricity requirements by the year 2020". Recent figures from the European Biomass Association suggest that biomass use is slowly increasing in use, but this is still comparatively low compared to fossil fuel use.
Figures also show that burning municipal solid waste is becoming more popular in Europe, although unpopular with campaign groups, who believe it encourages people to forget about recycling.
"Is it popular to have a waste-to-energy plant in your backyard?" asks Matt Taylor, a partner at investment firm Foresight. "You'd say no, but in Scandinavia, no city would be without its waste-to-energy plant.
"One way of looking at this is that about 60 per cent of waste goes into landfill in the UK. The rest is incinerated. In [mainland] Europe landfill is down to 20 per cent. In the UK a lot of people think they will be importing biomass from the US, but they're on a similar curve to us. There is a lot more biomass per head in the US, though.
"It will take us between five and 10 years to get there in the biomass market. There are some clear timetables in terms of using municipal waste and to stop landfill. The targets for this are between 2013 to 2020."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008