Ancient way of converting biomass into energy is just to burn it for producing heat, as humans practiced it for thousands of years. Still this is the most common way for conversion of biomass into energy in United States and elsewhere also.
The heat generated from biomass can be used for heating, cooking, and industrial processes, or for producing electricity.
Using biomass for burning haves some problems regarding some energy waste and also some air pollution if it is not carefully controlled.
Latest and innovative scientific inventions are moving people and the world towards the period of "personalized solar energy", in which consideration is being given to generating electricity through solar energy instead of huge central generating stations.
The subject on solar energy was discussed in a report presented by an international expert. It discusses an economical process for saving solar energy that in turn could power homes and plug-in cars in the upcoming years.
Moreover, this will not only benefit an individual but the entire environment by keeping it fresh and clean.
One of the most interesting talks at AAAS is about a discovery that may ultimately give the much-vaunted hydrogen economy an opportunity. Daniel Nocera, Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at MIT delivered a plenary lecture on a new catalyst produced in his research lab, one that gets inspiration from the photosynthetic pathways inside plant cells to break up body of water into H2 and O2, giving up the H2 to be utilized as fuel.
Fulfilling the human’s future energy need is going to require the sun, said by Nocera, and that is only going to occur if we can stock that energy for utilization when it is not beaming. Plants developed to take advantage of high-power chemical bonds, and the oil, gas, and coal we presently utilize is just stored sunlight (thru plants), even though concentrated. Hydrogen is the single practicable solution compared to batteries, capacitors, or mechanical storage systems like pumped-up water or compressed air when you consider energy density and the work from his research laboratory may help do that possible.
In our all previous posts, we have been learning about energy in details and its sources. Energy for sure is an important need of our daily lives. We use fuels when we need it, the fossil fuels are not common and it took a long long time for their making. Fossil fuels were made by the decaying of plants and animals and it has a lot of energy stored in it. The point is fossil fuels were once made in old times and they cannot be made again. So the fossil fuels are precious and should be conserved instead of using it locally. Instead we should preserve the fossil fuels and use other alternatives from the sources that are always present like sun and wind.
With the passage of time and the development of world, scientists and researchers have been successful in finding the fact that ‘hydrogen’ is eligible to be used as a source of energy.
2007 Budget Resolution was passed by the US Senate, In March 2006. This resolution includes a provision for lease sales of the right to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. It was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office that in the next five years income from lease sales could top $4.2 billion (source: ANWR).
In 1960 the Arctic National Wildlife Range was established. The purpose of its establishment is to protect the “unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values” of the area. In 1980, the Alaska Lands Act was passed by Congress; this act renamed the area and more than doubled its size. Today, the area of ANWR comprises of nearly 20 million acres, which is about the size of South Carolina.
An authorization for the study of the oil and gas potential of the northern part of the Refuge was given by the same act, which is called the 1002 Area. It is still being thought that this region could be a possible oil-development site, but it is said by the environmental groups that any oil production in this region would deeply upset the natural ecosystem within the ANWR.
