Energy From Biomass

What Energy From Biomass covers

Energy From Biomass is examined in Unit AS 1, The Earth's Capacity to Support Human Activity, a written examination. It covers defining biomass and its main categories, energy crops grown for biomass, advantages and disadvantages of biomass fuel, combustion, woodchip and fuel quality, gasification and syngas and biogas and commercial anaerobic digesters.

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page. CCEA AS Environmental Technology students sit this topic in the first year.

• Defining biomass and its main categoriesWhat biomass is and how it differs from fossil fuel, organic materials, wood, energy crops and wastes, why biomass is renewable but not truly carbon neutral, light and stored energy, and a calorimetry calculation.Open →
• Energy crops grown for biomassShort rotation willow and poplar coppice, Miscanthus, maize and sugar cane, Brazil's bioethanol, bioethanol and biodiesel, the food versus fuel debate, and a Miscanthus energy yield calculation.Open →
• Advantages and disadvantages of biomass fuelCarbon savings, residues and rural jobs, energy security, low energy density, transport and storage, air quality, biodiversity, imported wood pellets, the Renewable Heat Incentive, and biomass for Northern Ireland farms and off-grid homes.Open →
• Combustion, woodchip and fuel qualityWhy combustion dominates, co-firing and coal-to-biomass conversion, woodchip moisture, species, particle size and bark, woodchip against pellets, energy contents, and fuel, boiler sizing and payback calculations.Open →
• Gasification and syngasGasification and its stages, limited oxygen, the composition and uses of syngas, cleaning syngas, liquid fuels and chemicals, advantages and disadvantages against combustion, solid by-products and suitable feedstocks.Open →
• Biogas and commercial anaerobic digestersThe composition of biogas, removing hydrogen sulfide, biomethane, feedstocks used in Northern Ireland, digestate, the advantages and disadvantages of digesters, methane leaks, water pollution and the case for a dairy farm.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Energy From Biomass further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Gasification vs Combustion

  Gasification: heating organic fuel with restricted oxygen to make a burnable gas. Combustion: burning fuel with ample oxygen to release its heat directly.

• Syngas vs Biogas

  Syngas: a mixture chiefly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen made by heating fuel with little oxygen. Biogas: a mixture chiefly of methane and carbon dioxide made by microbes without oxygen.

• Woodchip vs Wood pellet

  Woodchip: coarse pieces of timber cut by a chipper, often fairly moist. Wood pellet: small dense cylinders of compressed dry sawdust.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Define the term biomass.

   Model answer

   Biomass is organic material from living or recently living plants and animals that can be used as a fuel. The material stores chemical energy captured from sunlight by photosynthesis.

2. 2

   How does biomass differ from a fossil fuel?

   Model answer

   Biomass comes from organisms that grew recently and can be regrown within years or decades. Fossil fuels formed from ancient organic matter over millions of years and cannot be replaced.

3. 3

   Name the four main categories of biomass.

   Model answer

   The four categories are wood, agricultural crops, organic materials, and agricultural and municipal wastes.

4. 4

   Give examples of organic materials used as biomass.

   Model answer

   Animal manures and slurry, food waste, sewage sludge and algae are organic materials used as biomass. Most are too wet to burn and are better suited to producing biogas.

5. 5

   What forms of wood are used as biomass fuel?

   Model answer

   Wood fuels include logs, woodchip and pellets from forestry, sawmill residues and coppiced energy crops. Clean waste wood from construction and pallets can also be burned.

6. 6

   What is meant by an energy crop?

   Model answer

   An energy crop is a plant grown specifically to be used as fuel rather than for food. Energy crops are the agricultural crops category of biomass.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Energy From Biomass revision questions

Is Energy From Biomass examined at AS in CCEA Environmental Technology?

Yes. It sits in AS 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Energy From Biomass cover in CCEA AS-Level Environmental Technology?

6 subtopics: defining biomass and its main categories, energy crops grown for biomass, advantages and disadvantages of biomass fuel, combustion, woodchip and fuel quality, gasification and syngas and biogas and commercial anaerobic digesters. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Energy From Biomass organised?

By the CCEA 3930 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.