Photosynthesis: An Alternative Energy Source

Energy is an important part of life producing the power of movement, heat, and production of electricity in many different ways. Therefore, choosing the correct source of energy is important for the environment and humans. Renewable energy that produces electricity never runs out, causing a lower environmental impact. Solar, Biomass, Wind, Geothermal, and Hydropower energy should be used globally to produce electricity. On the other hand, producing electricity from nonrenewable energy sources can be very harmful to humans and the environment. Humans can easily be dependent on it, which may not be the best option when it comes to finance, efficiency, sustainability and more. Approximately 52% of the US electricity comes from polluting sources like natural gas, oil, nuclear, and hydropower that have a lot of disadvantages effecting the environment in a negative way.

One of many possible renewable sources of energy is biomass. Biomass energy is the power that is contained within plant and animals.

Based on your data, draw a conclusion regarding how light intensity affects the rate of photosynthesis.

Renewables are better environmentally than any other power source under specific circumstances. The two most touted renewable energy sources are wind power and solar power. The specific circumstances in which they are better are when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Unfortunately, neither the wind nor the sun can be guaranteed to function for any specific date or time. The sun can only be guaranteed not to shine for approximately twelve hours a day and wind has no guarantees at all. Also, technology is not advanced enough to adequately harness the power provided by the sun and wind when they are available. It would take five hundred times the amount of land to build a solar plant with the same output as a nuclear plant (Oliver Hospers 24-25).

Biomass energy is a renewable energy source from living or recently living plant and animal materials which can be used as fuel. There are many ways in which we could produce this energy such as heat and steam. Also, instead of leaving waste in landfills, we’re reusing that waste and converting it into usable power. Pros: 1. Renewable. 2. Dependency on Fossil Fuels is Reduced 3. Protects air quality 4. Improves forest health. Cons: 1. Not 100% clean. 2. Requires a lot of water. 3. Not as efficient as fossil fuels.

As a evergrowing country, we need reliable energy resources. We need sources that wouldn’t require a large plant, cause environmental effects, be cheap enough to afford, would be something that is easily replenished, and something that would be safe to use. For example, burning coal (a nonrenewable source) is not good for the environment. We are suffering consequences such as more holes in the Ozone layer from using more than needed fossil fuels. Pollution is also a highly equal problem we are facing.

How does biomass work? Our project is on Biomass Energy. Biomass energy is a renewable energy resource from living or recently living plants or animals materials which can be used as fuel. Many different types of biomass is wood, dead plants, dead animals, garbage, corn. Biomass is a renewable energy source because the energy in it comes from the sun, but also because biomass/bioenergy can grow again over a short period of time compared with the long time that it takes to grow fossil fuels. Through the process of photosynthesis, chlorophyll in plants captures the sun's energy by converting carbon dioxide from the water and air from the ground into carbohydrates. When burned, they turn back into water and carbon dioxide and release the energy

Now going back to what the carbon cycle actually is. It is a way nature reuses carbon atoms in

Biomass can be considered as a renewable energy resource, although burning biomass releases carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere similar to burning fossil fuel (Liu H. 2011). There is a significant difference in CO2 release between burning a fossil fuel and burning biomass. Burning a fossil fuel releases CO2 that has been locked up for millions of years in the ground, affecting the natural CO2 cycle and resulting in an increase in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Burning biomass simply return to the atmosphere the same amount of CO2 which was absorbed from the air via the photosynthesis process while the biomass plant was growing over a relatively short period of time (a few years to decade), and there is no net release of C02 into the atmosphere, i.e., CO2-neutral, if the cycle of growth and harvest is sustained. Therefore, biomass can consider as a renewable energy resource as shown in Figure 3.1 (Li u H. 2011). If the production and transportation of the biomass fuel involve the use of fossil fuel, there would become net release of CO2 with biomass combustion (Liu H. 2011)

As mentioned before, China is the World’s leader in biomass energy production and its consumption. Biomass energy can be defined as an energy that obtains from organic matters, such as crop residues, firewood, foul, industrial and bio wastes (Zhang et al. 2007, 440). To attain this energy there is a great deal of distinct types of contraction biomass energy: direct burning, co-firing, biomass gasification, repowering, and other types (How Biomass Energy Works 2010). The easiest and common way of converting the organic matters to the energy is the direct burning: biomass should be burned to produce steam; consequently this steam runs turbines which generate electricity (ibid.). Another widespread example of bio energy is biomass gasification – a production of syngas by combination of a heated biomass and oxygen under the pressure, which could easily produce electricity by transforming it into

Renewable energy is the key to ensuring that humanity has a prosperous future here on Earth. Renewable energy is energy that can be gathered from renewable sources, which can be naturally replenished faster than it can be consumed, such as, sunlight, wind, geothermal heat, and biofuels. Currently, burning fossil fuels is the primary method countries rely on to produce energy and create electricity and power. Over many years of transporting and burning fossil fuels Earth’s environment has begun to deteriorate, evidence of this being air pollution, fossil fuel waste, and oil spills. Eventually, this reliance on fossil fuels will come to an end, whether it be due to reserve depletion or its negative impact on the environment. To remedy this, there is the emergence of renewable energy technology. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy accounted for almost 22% of global energy generation in 2013 and predicted that in 2020 that share would grow to 26% (International Energy Agency). The Earth’s natural processes like wind, sunlight, and running water need to be harnessed in order to create energy. This can be done with hydroelectric plants, solar energy panels, wind turbines, and many more harnessing technologies.

Biomass is an organic matter that comes from plants and also from animals and it is also a renewable energy source. Biomass can also be used as a facility heating, Electric power generation, and combined heat and power. Using Biomass is Burning, Fermentation, and Conversion. Reason why Biomass is a renewable source cause supplies aren’t limited. And biomass reduce dependence on foreign oil cause biofuels is the only renewable liquid.

Biomass is the organic matter in plants which can be burned to create energy. Forms of biomass include wood, charcoal, farm crops, and different forms of waste. Some biomass can be burned directly, while others are converted to methane gas or ethanol which can be burned or used to power different things such as vehicles. Chiras states that Biomass is considered renewable, but it only is to a certain point, it cannot be used faster than it is produced to avoid depleting the resource (2016). Biomass can also be used in a variety of ways to produce energy such as burning it directly, converting it to ethanol, or converting it to natural gas. There are many pros and cons of using biomass over fossil fuels to produce energy. Biomass is great for undeveloped countries where they can’t afford other alternative energy sources because they can reduce pollution by not using fossil fuels. One of the most significant pros of biomass as it relates directly to humans everyday life is that ethanol created from biomass costs roughly 60 cents per gallon, and dropping, which means fuel for vehicles can be produced much cheaper than fuel made completely from fossil fuels (Chiras, 2016). Not only is this form of fuel cheaper, it is also cleaner and does not release as many pollutants into the atmosphere. Although biomass is relatively clean in comparison to fossil fuels, it can release many pollutants into the air such as dioxins and creosote (Chiras, 2016). Biomass can also lead to an

The reason I have decided to write specifically about photosynthesis is because it seems almost like magic on how plants manage to take something that can’t be touched or felt, into something that is as a necessity as energy for our bodies to functions. This is a very important process that allows life on planets to form and be sustained. The only thing is that it is not magic on how it is done and I would like to examine specifically how the process unfolds and its interactions with chemistry.

Biomass is the energy we get from plants and animals that have died. It is organic material made from microorganisms containing stored energy from a process called photosynthesis. When photosynthesis occurs, plants take in sunlight with carbon dioxide and water, and then release glucose, which the plant uses for food and oxygen, which is the air that we breathe. Then sooner of later the plant will either die or get eaten. When it is eaten, the energy from the plant is passed from the plant to the animal or people eating them. When they die, the energy is either released into the air or it is used as fuel for burning or cooking. There are five types of biomass, wood, crops, garbage, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. All of these are renewable because more trees and crops can be grown and there will always be trash and waste. We release energy from these all the time and most people don't even realize it, but when you burn these, energy is released. Biomass energy is released in the form of heat. If you ever go camping and have a campfire, you are burning biomass fuels and the heat from the fire is energy. You can use the heat from the fire to boil water and create steam to create electricity. You can also use it to heat homes or other places. You can also convert biomass to other forms of energy such as natural gas. You probably didn't know that rotting garbage, human waste, and crops are one of the key ingredients of natural gas. Methane gas is also