Understanding Bioenergy and Its Future Perspectives

Subject: Environment
Pages: 40
Words: 7783
Reading time:
28 min
Study level: Undergraduate

Introduction

The term of Bioenergy could seem like very typical or difficult to understand in the first sight but it is a fact that Bioenergy exists since the time civilization came into being and is with the whole society since that time. Bioenergy is the most important and huge part of source of energy in the world. It is useful for almost every human being around the globe which include of governments, officials, general public, individuals, professionals, businesses, organizations, groups or communities, and also for municipalities. Moreover, it is used in many development procedures and course of actions which also consists of early pre-industrialization development process in several other developed and developing countries.

What is Bioenergy?

The term Bioenergy is driven from “Biomass Energy”. Biomass is basically the any organic matter which is present on renewable basis in living organisms. The field of Biomass is very vast and includes of many sources of energy which is inclusive of dedicated energy present in; crops, agricultural food, plants and trees, manure, feedlot residues, forest and mill residues, feeding crops, residues, wood and wood wastes, vegetable oils, food processing wastes, aquatic plants, animal wastes, municipal solid wastes (MSW), agricultural residues or crop wastes and other sorts of waste materials also contain Biomass. The growing source of Biomass is driven from numerous kinds of plants and crops which includes; sugarcanes, corn, poplar, willow, hemp, miscanthus and switchgrass. With the help of biomass, electricity and heat can be produced in parallel and in addition, transportation fuel energy along with petrochemical materials could also be produced (Haines 9).

After the full understanding of Biomass and is source, it becomes a lot easier to define Bioenergy. As explained before, the term Bioenergy is driven from Biomass energy. All sorts of biomass basically contains huge amount of carbon within them. All kinds of biomass could be utilized to produce energy; and the energy which is obtained by processing biomass is known as Bioenergy. There are many uses of Bioenergy and they are mainly used to produce space heat, electricity, industrial processing energy or heat, and mechanical power. Bioenergy technology is the source of renewable resources through which energy forms such as fuel and electricity are produced through a very systematic procedure (Silveira 24).

(Haines 9) Several Bioenergy technologies which includes of anaerobic digestion, direct combustion, cogeneration, and densification are under use of Bioenergy projects in many countries. Bioenergy could be as easy to understand as producing heat from burning wood; to be as complex as fabricating genetic bacteria to produce ethanol cellulose. Bioenergy is of mutual interest for both the developed and under developed countries because of it has the attention gravity for modern societies and because of its potential relationship with the development of all stages and strategies for every country existing in the world. this is because Bioenergy provides the world with modern utilization methods of energy and consumption of energy to all stages of development, and contains the modern infrastructure and technologies which are compatible and are already holds the strong perception and acceptance from not only the public sector but from the government sector as well.

With the help of Bioenergy, the needs for commercial, environmental, technical, social and political requirements could be fulfilled with ease. Bioenergy contributes to the global sustainability with respects to environmental and energy systems. This helps in maximizing the revenue generation and also the return on investments. But it has been verified and recognized that the extreme use of Bioenergy products and technologies around the globe could result in being crucial and significant in order to minimize the overall expenditure of minimizing carbon emission. It is because Bioenergy is directly proportional and related to agricultural, energy forestry and environmental matters. All these factors of energy forestry, environment, agricultural and energy contributes directly in the process to re-determine and revolution the use of Bioenergy in industry oriented nations who have their proper access on the natural and human made resource available country-wide (Sims 38).

This is a proven fact and figure that Bioenergy directly contributes in creating the possibility to tie together the sources of domestic, low-carbon oriented, rural-based, subtle sustained energy source not only in the developing countries but also in the industrialization sector as well.

Reasons for Adopting Bioenergy

There are actually many reasons for which the whole process and cycle of Bioenergy is being adopted around the globe with huge interest; and some of them are listed in the following (Sims 45):

  • The interesting fact of interest which attracts attention of people and governmental departments of the entire nation; ranging from policy makers to economists, environmentalists and commercial operation drivers
  • It has the major motive to concentrate on the world environmental and climatic needs and wants for extra energy sources to subtle economic operational development
  • Bioenergy has the capability to deal with several issues and problems simultaneously
  • Bioenergy is the most important foundation for renewable energy
  • It has gathered the attention of many countries and the core management of almost every country is working their best to adopt and promote Bioenergy projects on the economic and political base initiatives from the government aspects

Types of Bioenergy

Bioenergy can be produced through several kinds of methods and thus, it has many types listed as under (Haines 8):

  • Liquids
    • Bio-gasoline
    • Bio-butanol
    • Bio-diesel
    • Dimethyl ether (DME)
    • Bio-kerosene
    • Biomass-to-Liquids (BTL)
    • Ethanol
    • Solids
  • Wood
    • Wood residue
    • Firewood
    • Wood pellets
    • Wood-fired biomass boilers
    • Gas wood
    • Charcoal or Coal
    • Biomass pellets
  • Gases
    • Biogas
    • Syngas
    • Synthetic natural gas (SNG)
    • Bio-propane

Conversion Methods of Bioenergy

Some of the major conversion methods used for Bioenergy are listed in the following (mässan 114):

  • Physiochemical
  • Thermo-chemical
    • Bio-refinery
    • Pyrolysis
    • Depolymerization
    • Gasification
    • Combustion
    • Biochemical
  • Production of bio-diesel
    • Production of ethanol
    • Aerobic
    • Landfill gas collection (LFG)
    • Anaerobic

Facts of Bioenergy

There are some interesting facts related to Bioenergy which are listed just for the sake of information in the following (www.unapcaem.org):

  • Ethanol contains higher rate of octane as compared to the normal gasoline
  • Bio-diesel can also be produced with the help of waste oil from the deep fryers present in several big restaurants
  • Major byproduct of bio-diesel is known to be glycerine which is compatible to more than 1500 applications inclusive of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and also food
  • 5 MW of electricity through biogas can be produced through manure feedstock of around 40,000 heads of cattle
  • During the second world war, ethanol gas blends were utilized in many states of the united states

Technology use in Bioenergy

The major technologies used in the process of Bioenergy are listed in the following (metla.fi):

  • Cogeneration
  • Densificaton
  • Gasification
  • Landfill gas
  • Liquefaction
  • Alcohol fermentation
  • Anaerobic digestion
  • Direct combustion
  • Pyrolysis
  • Oilseed extraction

Advantages of Bioenergy

Bioenergy is gaining its access over the globe because it is the best facility or source to use and produce energy. Bioenergy has countless advantages but some of them are listed as under (Worldwatch 68):

  • Helps in diversifying the agricultural and forestry work of action
  • Ensures sustainability in the county’s economy
  • Contributes to the healthy and safe food processing and supplies
  • Improves the security level of energy of the country
  • Helps in elimination of poverty in the nation
  • Ensures less reduced import of products made of petroleum
  • Ensures proper strategies and proceedings at national level
  • Enhances the living standard of the nation
  • Grabs he attention of foreign and national investors and motivates them to invest in this sector
  • Improves and increases the level of job vacancies in the region
  • Has a huge impact on the commodity prices
  • Emphasizes on enhancement of industrial competitiveness
  • Helps in maintaining and improving a strong export industry

Production Process of Bioenergy

There is no such hard and fast rule for producing Bioenergy because there so numerous and countless methods through which Bioenergy is produced. The methods available for producing Bioenergy vary from burning wood and wooden wastes to produce heat for cooking and producing heat; to the process of wood gasification of wooden chips for the production of transportation fuel. Different energy production methods differ with respects of the procedure complexity, cost of installations, amount of carbon emission involved, energy efficiency, labor costs and any other kind of cost involved in the whole process (Worldwatch 68).

The whole process and cycle of Bioenergy production can be understood with the help of the following diagram:

The whole process and cycle of Bioenergy production can be understood with the help

The Simple Bioenergy Production Method (metla.fi)

At first, the raw material is transferred from the harvesting fields to the fertilizer or transmission plant. Huge amount of raw material is being processed in specially manufactured fermenters in order to make biogas. Biogas, most of times is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane.

After that, biogas is being processed under high pressures and combustion through the fermentation which helps in producing the required amount of heat and electricity in parallel through typical cogeneration process. This source of energy is stored and fed into electrical power grids.

The principles used for producing Bioenergy can also be represented in a pictorial form illustrated as under:

The principles used for producing Bioenergy can also be represented in a pictorial form

Pictorial illustration of producing energy with Biomass – Principles involved! (metla.fi)

Business Model of Bioenergy

A proper well-planned business model of Bioenergy helps in improving the entire infrastructure of the organization, employees, environment, organizational atmosphere, projects, teams, outcomes, business and business perspective, people involved in the business like internal and external stakeholders and investors. The business model of Bioenergy also helps the business in making strong long-term relationships with the people and organizations who are related to the business.

The business model of Bioenergy in an organization or business can be explained in pictorial form as under:

The business model of Bioenergy in an organization or business

Business model of Bioenergy (Entire-Energy.com)

The business model of Bioenergy brings the following success factors to the organization (Entire-Energy.com):

  • The company enjoys massive technology enhancement in respects of development
  • Development on the basis of performance, revenue generation and perspective growth is being observed in the organization
  • The entire circle of employees, management and all the people involved in the business benefits with commercialized capabilities and proficiency
  • The business system and business partners enjoys maximum advantage of the growing operations management improvement as a whole in the entire organization

Investment in Bioenergy Sector

Till now, countries are emphasizing on Bioenergy very much and on personal basis because it is not only encouraging but also beneficial for the governing bodies of the countries who are involved in Bioenergy production or projects. Bioenergy helps the government in generating source of energy, job vacancies for the people, improved lifestyle for the individuals and families, and sterilizing the economic state on national basis (Worldwatch 68).

(independent.ie) Many countries have exerted extra efforts to enhance the investment ratio in the Bioenergy sector because it has showed very beneficial and positive results for the parties who have invested in this field till date. Not only governments but many national and multinational organizations are also involved in promoting the Bioenergy sector and have put in huge investments. Governments have shown interest in this sector by designing new forms and packages of policies which includes of taxation policy, risk management and risk reserves and built subsidies in order to encourage the whole market of Bioenergy investment. This has paved way not only for the Bioenergy industries but also has encouraged the bio-chemical industries as well for the governing bodies and the investment companies.

(Futurist 44) Several countries have shown interest in investing into the Bioenergy sector after years of trials and investigation because the beginning concept of the Bioenergy sector was that it makes use of all the useful crops and cultivation to produce energy and ignores the general people. Later on, it was proven that the Bioenergy sector is worth investing because of its versatility and unique mode of energy manufacturing work; and thus, from the year 2000 onwards, this sector has seen vast growth in the expansion and production of Bioenergy sources.

Bioenergy has observed remarkable progress in many countries because of its investment and perspective advantages. It is because Bioenergy is highly dedicated as labor-intensive field which causes development in the rural areas on huge basis. Investment in the Bioenergy sector opens ways for the job environment where numerous uncountable agro-energy employment opportunities are introduced and opened for many job seeking professionals. This also makes easy for the investment chances and prospects in the development of green business opportunities. The investment carried out in the industrial sector modernizes and develops the entire region of the rural area of that particular investing country (Futurist 44).

(vienergy.org) Investment in the Bioenergy sector is very encouraging and supported by everyone because it strengthens and expands the entire Bioenergy sector by motivating the manufacturers and producers to introduce and put in more Bioenergy products and services in the marketplace. The investment in the Bioenergy sector also helps in creating new horizons, markets, eco-friendly products and proceeding perspectives for the industries involved in agriculture. It paves way for the emergence of major value-added bio-refineries and Bioenergy infrastructure across the entire region. Investments in the Bioenergy sector helps the government in maintaining long-term and sustainable growing ratio of the country’ economy and strengthening the rural industries and areas of the region. It encourages creating infrastructure of the Bioenergy sector so that it could help the marketplace and the distributing Bioenergy products to grow better than before in the future.

(aebiom.org) Apart form all the benefits and advantages which an investing party can enjoy while investing their money and property in this sector, there is a lot of criticism and risk which is involved for the normal individuals and farmers besides monetary and developing factors. The factor which is focused as the biggest backdrop in Bioenergy is the fear and risk involved according to which the population might suffer from hunger and malnutrition in the future because huge mount of crops and cultivation is being used in the production and manufacturing of Bioenergy. Producing Bioenergy could be good for the environment, but it could react as a threat for the human population and human global demands for food, beverages and land properties.

Global Demand of Bioenergy

(Worldwatch 68) The world has seen a tremendous growth rate in the world population. This has increase the global demand for many products and services of almost every sector, such as; food, power, automobiles, electricity, clothing, house-hold products, beverages, accommodation facilities, educational institutions, electrical and IT items, and the list goes on and on. The increase in the world population has affected every sector and people demand for more with the passage of time because their needs and wants have increased rapidly. The growth rate in the world population since 1960 in the developing countries has been calculated to be 2.6% annually which is considered as gigantic and enormous growth rate according to the researchers.

(unapcaem.org) The growing demand for Bioenergy is said to be good, but has mixed proportion of positive and negative feedbacks, impacts, and results. It will affect the prospective developments in respects of food and food consumption, agricultural demand of production and inflation, change in trade of agricultural, food, natural products and resources, usage and growth of natural resources and crops.

(Futurist 44) The increase in the world population and their demands has also affected the ratio of Bioenergy demands which has widened according to the increase in the population around the globe. To meet the global demand of Bioenergy, extra land is required in which crops would be cultivated in order to meet the Bioenergy demand besides the human land and food crops demand, because food is the basic necessity for every human and nobody would allow to use the needed amount of food to be used for the production of Bioenergy. It would highly affect the food demands and would result in hunger, and malnutrition of human body food demand. If observed on global basis, there is enough land and water to cultivate and grow the crops and produce bio-mass through which large amount f Bioenergy could be produced. However, shortages and certain limitations are faced by the land and water reservoirs on regional basis which are not properly planned or cannot be provide because of shortage of resources available. Bioenergy affects the food productivity and security in both negative and positive ways, so mutual reaction has been seen by different governing bodies and countries where some communities are in favor of Bioenergy while some are against the massive production of Bioenergy because of some of the negative factors it perceives. If on one hand, it would provide shortage and uncertainty from the food and crops fields, then the other side is seen very bright where a lot of productivity, development and introduction of numerous job opportunities is being observed in the rural areas. If designed properly, the Bioenergy global demands would pave ways for the farmers in the rural areas and would improve their lifestyle and income ratio (Rosillo-Calle, Hemstock, Groot, Woods 9).

(Worldwatch 68) According to the estimated calculation, the entire world is making use of around 430 ExaJoules (EJ) amount of energy annually; from which a total amount of around 23 percent of the energy is utilized in the transportation resources. Governing bodies of several countries are working on to increase the overall Bioenergy potential. Right now, it is being estimated that the potential Bioenergy could be supplied from 0EJ to 1000EJ by the end of the year 2050. This amount is estimated to be the twice of the present need of Bioenergy which is required globally. This shows that the governments of several countries are putting in extra effort to run an extra mile by meeting up to the mark set by the people by meeting their demands. This practices is under serious consideration because of the fact that the entire global marketplace is determined and motivated by the environmental conditions and situations whose main commitment is to reduce carbon emission through thick and thin by following certain global demand policies of Bioenergy. This is because it is expected that the total global demand for Bioenergy would be increased on high scale by the year 2020, as reported by some newspapers (Independent.ie).

The major reasons involved in meeting up to the global demands of Bioenergy are listed as under:

  • The overall mass of human population
  • The total massive amount of food, beverages and land required by the human population
  • Conversion methods and technologies of energy
  • Agronomy enhancement and development

Global Bioenergy Needs

(vienergy.org) As discussed before, Bioenergy is of great importance for the entire mankind because it serves the world and provides everyone with source of energy while taking care of the environment in a protective way. The main am of Bioenergy is to focus to provide a mechanism to maintain, synchronize and implement the international research market, demonstration activities and common goals which are interrelated with the usage, production, manufacturing, and deliverance of Bioenergy source and products coordinated with each other. Bioenergy promotes the international market and help countries gains access to the mutual coordination to one another. This way, many countries can exchange the mode of knowledge, skills and technologies with each other and help one another by mutual coordination.

Apart from all the benefits Bioenergy brings to businesses and countries, the state of Bioenergy is considered as crucial and on stake because of its side effects or the needs of Bioenergy which are essential to be completed first before any other thing else. The main objective of this section is to present an authentic form of information to highlight the growing needs of Bioenergy through which renewable source of energy could be represented. However, there are certain problems associated with Bioenergy and biomass production which are present on global basis and need to be addressed and then resolved accordingly on the first go. These respected global needs of Bioenergy are listed as under:

  • Bioenergy global need for food and crops: (aebiom.org) The world has seen grand and huge boost in the information sector of Bioenergy and all the mankind is highly grateful for this invention of humanity. But there is a certain problem that for the production of Bioenergy; foods, crops, food reserves and wastes and crop wastes are already being used in different forms. Especially food and crops, which is the main consumption source for every human in the world. Thus, extra production and cultivation of crops and food is required so that Biomass could be produced and create source of energy and electricity for everyone. By doing so, the protection and criticism on Bioenergy would be drawn down in huge numbers and graphs. It is the basic need of Bioenergy that it needs to consume food and crops, which is why the extra amount of crops and food cultivation has been allotted by several governing bodies and organizations just to serve for the purpose of Bioenergy.
  • Global water management: (Molden 12) Water is the basic need for everybody everywhere. It is required for drinking most importantly, consuming for humankind, daily use, house-hold use, commercial use, industrial use, food preparation, crops and fields’ cultivation, energy use, and so many other things. The need for water has been growing since the first day and would continue to grow more in the future more than present day. To provide everyone with proper amount of water supply, proper well maintained water management is required. Water management is of crucial importance for Bioenergy as well and it is one of the most important Bioenergy global demands that water should be provided with proper management for use. Depending on the Bioenergy would need water management in the future because; it is the global need for everyone, and secondly it will create the air of competition in respects of land and water and would provide double edged raised Bioenergy nature of concern.
  • Global production of forest-based resources: (metla.fi) The fuel and other source of energies produced through the method of Bioenergy are carbon-negative which makes it quite popular and adoptable for every industry and field in the world. Another form of natural resources which needs to be worked on seriously is the extra production of forest-based resources. It includes harvesting of trees, plants, plant wastes, forest reserves wastes, low-productive dried peat lands, harvesting of round and thin wood, and growing plants and trees, growing logging residues, novel fuel products, and other wood energy resources. This has merged the Bioenergy gained from forests and climatic change because of the growing global needs of Bioenergy and that of changing factors of climate around the world (Metla.fi).
  • Other global needs: Other global needs of Bioenergy which should be taken care of are (Rosillo-Calle, Hemstock, Groot, Woods 9):
    • Constraints related to capital and finance
    • Production of wind power
    • Use of solar energy
    • Use of coal technology
    • Use of urban waste-based fuels
    • Several kinds of residues
    • Industrial wastes, reserves and residues
    • Use of bagasse

The overall growth in Bioenergy needs to be taken very carefully and seriously managed in order to make the maximum positive and beneficial outcome of it in the future by resolving the challenges reside within the environment of Bioenergy needs and its resources available in the world.

Global Environmental Aspects of Bioenergy

(Futurist 44) When we talk about Bioenergy, one of the major concerns which comes in discussion the most is the environment aspects which affects the global environment as a whole on the pollution and safeguard of the world. this concern is also the main objective of Bioenergy which needs to be highlighted in bold thoughts. The environmental aspects which are connected with the Bioenergy are explained as under (vienergy.org):

  • Greenhouse gas emission and world climatic changes: Everybody would be aware of the term greenhouse where plantation is carried out in transparent glass houses and sunlight passes through these glasses to cause heat and energy to these plants. The negative point lies is that this heat in the air produces carbon dioxide and methane as primary gases in the greenhouses, which are known to be given off while biomass and fossil fuels decomposition through naturally or artificially. Methane is said to be more effective and useful for chemical feedstock and fuel. Whereas, carbon dioxide is useful for the growth of the plants and Bioenergy. This effect has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while using fossil fuels for the plants.

As a solution to this environmental aspect, use of animal waste could be beneficial for the safeguard of environment because it reduces the increasing amount of carbon dioxide and methane emission in the environment.

  • Quality of Air: It has been observed that large amount of carbon dioxide and methane gases are being disposed off in the air which causes harm to the global environment and causes environmental changes to huge extends. To cover this segment, bio-fuels and biomass plays an important role by setting up instruments and policies through which the quality of air in every country could be enhanced and improved by the process through which methane gas could be spellbound in the applications of biomass to energy set-ups.
  • Quality of Water: (Molden 12) Water pollution is one of the major problems under discussion globally. This is yet another Bioenergy need to improve the overall quality of water globally through thick or thin. Some governing bodies and organizations are already on this issue and have come up with some solutions. According to the modern research, water quality could be improved by the process of gasification, combustion, and pyrolysis. These processes not only use heat energy to decompose animal wastes, but also reduce the entire volume of produced wastes. Another processes which minimizes the transportation costs are concentration and recovery processes of potassium and phosphorous in ash form.
  • Other Bioenergy environmental aspects: Other Bioenergy environmental aspects which are needed to be considered as important are (vienergy.org):
    • Ethanol emission into the environment
    • Bio-diesel emission into the environment

Global Political Orientation of Bioenergy

The political cooperation of governments in the Bioenergy sector brings coherent and logical means to the governmental official level. It helps in influencing the forces of research and development of the country to get involved in the Bioenergy politically so that this sector could seek development in the coming future. Many countries have exerted immense pressure and concern on how to improve their Bioenergy forces on political basis nation wide to make subtle flow of information to the source with high expertise and services. Growth of cooperatives is highly dependent on the political situation and orientation of the countries (icrisat.org).

Some of the activities in which countries usually get involved in Bioenergy are (aebiom.org):

  • Not to rely on oil business wholly and solely
  • Providing major contribution to Bioenergy renewable resources through thick or thin
  • Preparing future by deciding on the taxation amount on fossil fuels
  • Applying the possible lowest rates of VAT on energy, technologies and bio-fuels
  • Providing financial aid which could derive the Bioenergy reforms to give in minimum carbon dioxide emission and high rate of efficiency
  • Promoting fair competition rules for Bioenergy
  • Providing subtle enough aid to produce heat and energy
  • Giving in to promote Bioenergy agricultural policy mode
  • Setting up standards which could facilitate the global marketplace
  • Setting up standard which could promote the global business growth

The impact of political interruption and coordination among countries has brought up fruitful results in the global political situation and trade. Following are some points which are highlighted from the many provided examples present around the world:

  • Several countries of European Union, which includes of Netherlands, Sweden, and Baltic Sea nations are involved in the international dealing of wood pellets
  • Austria is the strongest trade in the whole region of the world when it comes to Bioenergy trade
  • Sweden imported pellets and oil tall from Baltic nations and north America region
  • Sweden also is involved in the political import business of logging residues and other pellets from MSW, and Belarus
  • Canada and Finland are the grand exporters of pellets to Sweden
  • Netherlands import Bioenergy material for several power plants projects from several countries
  • Netherlands also imported wood pellets from European union countries; while importing palm kernel sheets from the country of Malaysia
  • The global trade business of bio-ethanol grew up to 7.814 billion liters in the year 2006
  • The global market share of the countries south America and north America grew to 60% in 2006
  • The global market of Asia-pacific grew up to the scale of 17% in the year 2006
  • Africa contributed to make around global bio-ethanol trade shipments up to 4% in the year 2006
  • European countries succeeded in making up to 20% of business trade worldwide
  • The global sales graph of brazil reached to the level of 3.9 billion liters in total in the year 2006

Life Cycle of Bioenergy

The life cycle of Bioenergy can be expressed and understood by the following diagram:

Life Cycle of Bioenergy
Life Cycle of Bioenergy (repp.org)

Almost every scientist in the world agrees to the point that carbon dioxide adds to the pollution to the environment and causes harm to the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere. It is also the cause of the rise in the temperatures and other climatic differences occurring to vast extends in the earth. Every year, almost 3-11 degrees of Celsius warm temperature is rising annually as a normal average. This has not only affected the climatic conditions but also has been melted the ice present in the cold regions of the planet. The cold regions are all comprised of ice in the extreme ends of the earth that have started melting, resulting in the global warming according to which the water level of seas has increased every year and is expected to flood out the coastal regions, islands and several portions of land across the globe within some years. This harmful affect could be minimized down to huge extends with the help of the Bioenergy technology (repp.org).

Immense amount of biomass is present around the globe which is needed to be exploited, and could serve in the regions of regional, international, local and national form of energy utilization of Bioenergy. The life cycle of Bioenergy is qui interesting and contains helpful information for everyone. According to a typical life-cycle, it involves the assembling and analyzing outputs, inputs information, along with the potential climatic impacts and aspects of system of a product or service throughout the entire era of the life cycle.

The life cycle of Bioenergy collects and analyzes the whole system of processes involved in the input and output of the system of Bioenergy. The life cycle analyses the whole cycle of processes and procedures involved in the quantifying of climatic and environmental aspects involved in the Bioenergy. The life cycle of Bioenergy includes the utilization of biomass which is compared to coal, nuclear, natural gas or other biomass materials and renewable stated above. The output or the emissions coming out because of burning the biomass in the projected plants of biomass contains less amount of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases which helps in reducing the environmental pollution as a whole. Other gases which are emitted in very less amounts in the cycle are known to be nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Utilization of water, land and air resources are involved in the entire process of Bioenergy life-cycle which varied from the manufacturing or cultivation of biomass, collection process of biomass and then transferring this entire biomass to the energy.

Bioenergy to Replace Oil Energy in Future

(vienergy.org) Bioenergy is known to be one of most exciting and amusing development taken place around the globe and it has caught the attention of different nations and governments simultaneously because of its unique factor through which it could minimize the pollution and use of fossil fuels and add safety to the global environmental aspects. There are uncountable and numerous value-added environmental and economic advantages stick to the Bioenergy. It is useful in so many ways; the increase in Bioenergy would reduce the soil acidity, soil salinity, alleviation of soil erosion, and so many other benefits foreseen by the researchers, politicians, governing bodies, and organizations heads. It has the capability to encourage not only the suppliers but also end users at the same time.

Nowadays, the environmental aspects and climatic conditions have changed and still are continuing to change with rapid speed. This has laid impact on the global economy of almost every country. This includes the utilization and growth of oil energy as well. The prices and quantity of oil energy which is used in the industrial sector, domestic use, commercial use, official business, energy sector, restaurants, and so many other sectors involved; have changed with the time to vast extends. The global need for oil energy has affected the condition and growth of oil sector and oil energy. From few years, it has been foreseen by the scientists and researchers that the quantity of oil might face lack and shortage because of its grand usage around the globe. Apart from that, the oil prizes have reached to high peak and have seen inflation to high extends.

High prizes of oil and growing needs for the oil energy has changed the concerns of the people and governments; and has driven the investment through innovation in the sector of bio-fuels. This has led the people to think about choosing other energy resource which could replace the oil energy very easily in the future; through which the users and suppliers both could get the benefit of less prizes and more quantity and which could also help in minimizing the environmental pollution in the air, and could improve the quality of soil, land resources, water and air at the same time with its effects.

The correct answer which has clicked the minds and thought of the investors, governments and people is the bio-fuels which are driven from biomass and are utilized to serve the mankind while protecting the environmental base as well. Bio-fuels are carried out from biomass, plants and metabolic byproducts which are opposite to the fossil fuels which include natural gas, coal, petroleum, oil energy and others in which petroleum or oil energy is the most used natural resource around the globe. Bio-fuels are said to be environment safe fuels and emit far less amount of toxic gases like carbon dioxide while burning as compared to the fossil fuels or oil energy (aebiom.org).

That is why, bio-furls are considered to replace oil energy in the future very easily because it provides as the best alternative energy resource to replace the existing fossil fuels or oil energy. Some of the advantages according to which bio-fuels are the best alternative over oil energy are explained and listed in the following:

  • Bio-fuels are known to be non toxic
  • Bio-fuels have far less noxious emissions than oil energy
  • Bio-fuels are highly non-flammable as compared to the highly flammable oil energy
  • Bio-fuels are environment friendly as compared to the oil energy resources present in the world
  • Bio-fuels are light in weight and contains no amount of sulfur

Bio-fuels can be beneficial to replace oil energy in the future because of its versatile nature and several beneficial aspects through which bio-fuels are said to see more development than oil energy around the globe. Bio-fuels are better than oil energy and can replace oil energy because they contain cheap organic matters in competent and resourceful production of energy with high energy net improvements. The burning of bio-fuels does not affect the environmental conditions of the earth because they are very less in number as compared to the oil energy. Apart from that, the oil prizes have increased very much around the globe, whereas bio-fuels are not only environmental friendly but also are cost-effective than the oil energy. It also helps the farmers very much because it enables them to sell their cultivation and crops on beneficial rates in the marketplace or to the energy power plants where their crops could be utilized in producing bio-fuels.

Bioenergy provides hope for a bright future to the whole world in shape of bio-fuels. Bio-fuels would help people to make more use of oil energy and oil resources in other fields while using bio-fuels in place of the oil energy. After looking on the bright side of the picture, governments are paying extra efforts to the sector of bio-fuels and are taking positive encouraging steps to expand bio-fuels in the marketplace while reducing the use of fossil fuels so that the environment of the earth could become more safe while giving chance to people and individuals to have cost-effective bio-fuels rather than buying expansive fossil fuels from the market.

Ensuring Global Bioenergy Demand & Sustainability

(Futurist 44) Bioenergy has seen immense development and promotion within its industry sector till the time and it would keep growing to far extend in the future as expected by the researchers, scientists, and governments. But, apart from that, there are certain global demands of Bioenergy which needs to be fulfilled in order to have a sustainable Bioenergy revolution in the world. this would help in maintaining sustainability in the Bioenergy sector, while using minimum of the sources, and safeguarding the environment of the planet earth.

The proportion and strategies through which we could meet the global demand for Bioenergy are:

  • Environment sustainability demand: The sustainability factor in the environment is one of the most important global demands of Bioenergy. This fragment is the centre of attention for every government and country because the main purpose of Bioenergy is to reduce pollution and safeguard the air and water of the planet. The primary issues which are needed to be look after in environmental global demands are listed in the following:
    • Protecting soil erosion
    • Air quality
    • Water quality
    • Reduction of soil nutrients
    • Preventing biodiversity
    • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
    • Water management
    • Land management
    • Waste management
    • Proper use of fertilizers and agro-chemicals
  • Demand of enhancing rural area jobs and developing the rural areas: The main motive of Bioenergy is to enhance and improve the condition of rural areas because most of times, rural areas are being neglected by the governments and politicians and never get the chance to develop according to the global demands. Bioenergy helping improving the overall situation and condition of rural areas by creating more opportunities for job vacancies, educating people about energy and modern techniques, and applying the modern technologies in the rural areas and developing them according to the present advancements.
    • Demand of contributing to renewable energy strategies
    • Demand of degraded land availability
    • Permanent grasslands
    • Promoting wood pellets production
    • Facilitating developed market opportunities around the globe
    • Demand to modernize the wood gasification technology
    • Support labor conditions
    • Demand to improve conditions of trade
    • Demand to understand the economic conditions around the globe
    • Demand of social sustainability around
  • Demand of economic sustainability: The demand of economic sustainability required the following demands to be fulfilled:
    • Consumer demand
    • Co-product and byproduct demand
    • Demand of financial cost
    • Demand of capita cost
    • Demand of labor cost
    • Availability and cost of feedstock
    • Framework of taxation
    • Demand of regulatory and policy
    • Demand for advanced technology

Strategy to Satisfy Global Food Demands

Food is the basic need for human body and so is the most important aspect of living for the entire mankind. The importance of food cannot be neglected at any cost. Thus, the main problem with food and Bioenergy which is inked together is that there is a lot of threat present for food and crops when it comes to the development of Bioenergy. It Is because of the fact that Bioenergy makes use of biomass and biomass includes of many kinds but food energy, water and crops are the main source of Bioenergy and are used as biomass. The increase in the popularity of Bioenergy has high impact on the food productivity. Thus, biomass and process of Bioenergy could act as a threat to the availability of the food supplies around the world (uncapsa.org).

This is because food and water are said to be the best substitute for biomass and are very beneficial for producing Bioenergy. This strategy has laid rise in the food prices by low-income consumers. The crops and foods highly affected by the high prizes are the major feedstock markets consisting of food products, such as; soybean, palm oil, sugar, sugar cane, maize, and rapeseed oil.

The several strategic ways to be used for fulfilling the global demand of food and food security are (et al Ringler):

  • Developing analytical framework for every country and highlighting their major crop and feedstock productions
  • Carrying out more agricultural research, and improving the quality of research and sustainability factor of agricultural productivity
  • Policies should be made for separate production of food and crop cultivation for humankind and then separate for biomass production purposes
  • Supporting the strategy of international trade policy for the food security in the future
  • Improving and safeguarding the arming lands where the crops and feedstock are cultivated
  • Taking care of four dimensions of food security which are;
    • Accessibility
    • Stability
    • Availability
    • Utilization
    • Adequate diet
    • Safety
    • Acceptability
    • Food production should be increased to minimum ratio of twice or thrice around the globe
    • Water management should be carried out properly with strategic planning
    • Strategies should be set for proper meat production and cereal cultivation as well

Investment by Tunisia in Bioenergy Sector

Tunisia is a well known country which is situated on the coast of Mediterranean of the North Africa region. It is an African country where its neighboring countries are Algeria and Libya. Tunisia was set free and considered independent on March 20, 1956.

(Mason, WBED 285) As far as Bioenergy is concerned, Tunisia is not very productive in the sector of Bioenergy but has been working in this field very seriously and intends to grow its reputation and work accordingly with the passage of time. The government of Tunisia has been actively involved in setting up strategies which could improve the country-particular government and social-economics structures, especially in the Bioenergy sector and production of biomass.

Tunisia has been considerably involved in the proper production and utilization of feedstock and food crops cultivation and has set up several strategies to meet the global food demand for Bioenergy. The investments put in under by Tunisia are immense but Tunisia is also concerned about the advantages and disadvantages of the Bioenergy sector.

(Mason, WBED 285) Tunisia is very serious in investing in the Bioenergy sector, production of biomass for the proper use of Bioenergy; and is also considerate about the global needs of humankind which is crucial for every being. Tunisia has been actively involved in participating in several governmental and foreign power projected plants in which Bioenergy I produced through proper life cycle assessment.

(tunisiaonlinenews.com) The main concern of the government of Tunisia is to promote Bioenergy just like other countries around the globe, but Tunisia is also fighting against hunger and poverty which are caused by Bioenergy; and also is against the high inflation ratio which has been brought forward to the individuals and people of the world because of the actor of mass production required for Bioenergy. Apart from that, Tunisian government has also invested to make certain agricultural policies for the people and industries; so that is would not affect the industries work in producing Bioenergy through biomass, nor affect the people by deficiency of food and crops in its homeland. In this way, Tunisia has not only gained the favor of the small farmers of its country, but also has gained the attention and favor of the international Bioenergy marketplace. This has helped the local and small farmers to gain access to the international feedstock market.

The investment measures taken y the Tunisian government is highly appreciatable. It has invited several foreign and local investors to come and set their business in Tunisian homeland and promote Bioenergy; while on the other hand, the government of Tunisia has minimized the taxation of feedstock, crops, cultivation, production of biomass, fertilizers and foodstuffs so that nobody could face difficulty in living their life of choice (tunisiaonlinenews.com).

Tunisia has invested in the biomass industry to huge extends and is one of the 5 countries who produce 25% of solid biomass in the world. This way, we could conclude that Tunisia is responsible to produce around 5%-8% of the total solid biomass imported in the world. Tunisia has managed to come to this point globally because of the fact that it understands the importance of technology and modernization which created the air of awareness of the need for solidarity and efficient coordination as a whole to demolish poverty, hunger and inflation and to study the main causes of all these problems. The government of Tunisia identified very major risks which were associated with Bioenergy and then did several tasks to solve them accordingly and promote Bioenergy while eradicating all the issues involved in the Bioenergy (Mason, WBED 285).

(tunisiaonlinenews.com) The government of Tunisia has always put forward the modern technology of Bioenergy investment in front of its national set priorities. Its interest in the political and social reforms have made the investments easier for the Tunisian government and encouraged it to move ahead with other developing countries. In short, the government of Tunisia has a very strong hand over the diagnostic research n the climatic, agricultural and food issues faced by the world; and it is working with all other countries to help the world in modern development and also to handle the issues faced at present for a better future. Tunisia has laid great investments on annual basis just for the sake of promoting agricultural, industrial, domestic, global Bioenergy reforms with the combination of effective Bioenergy production working while taking care of the environmental aspects involved with it.

Conclusion

In the present and modern age, Bioenergy has emerged as the top priority on the map of the world for every big industry. The strategic pillars on which Bioenergy stands are known to be food security, energy security and sustainability in the development sector. The factors which affect the field of Bioenergy as the major challenges are; poverty, hunger, lack of resources, climatic changes and energy security. There are several kinds of biomass materials through which efficient energy known as Bioenergy is produced and this Bioenergy acts as the source of energy for the industrial, residential, agricultural, domestic, local, national and international sectors. Biomass is the material through which Bioenergy is produced and biomass is of many kinds. With the passage of time, the use of Bioenergy has seen a lot of demand on global basis, which is a good sign for the future and it is expected that the future energy resources such as, crops and oil energy would be successful replaced by the Bioenergy and bio-fuels for sure. This is because Bioenergy provides far less amount of carbon dioxide emission in the air and does not cause harm to the environmental conditions due to its non-toxic nature.

Works Cited

Raelen Williard Howard E. Haines, 1994, bioenergy guidebook: Montana, DIANE Publishing, pg1-10.

Semida Silveira, 2005, Bioenergy – Realizing the Potential, Elsevier, pg4-30.

Ralph E. H. Sims, 2002, The Brilliance of Bioenergy: In Business and in Practice, Earthscan, pg23-48.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers Renewable Power Committee, Professional Engineering Publishers (PEP); 2003, Renewable Bioenergy – Technologies, Risks and Rewards, John Wiley and Sons, pg24.

Svenska mässan, 1985, Bioenergy 84, Elsevier Applied Science, pg114.

Entire-Energy.com, 2008, Web.

Aide Memoir, 2008, Regional Forum on Bioenergy Sector Development: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Way Forward; Agricultural Engineering and Machinery (APCAEM), Web.

Worldwatch Institute, 2007, Biofuels for Transport: Global Potential and Implications for Sustainable Energy and Agriculture, Earthscan, pg68.

Alexander Müller, Josef Schmidhuber, Jippe Hoogeveen, Pasquale Steduto; 2008, Some insights in the effect of growing bio-energy demand on global food security and natural resources, GlobalBioenergy.org, Web.

Majella O’Sullivan, 2008, Bioenergy demand to rocket by 2020, Independent.ie, Published: Web.

Futurist; 1987, Bioenergy Can Meet Global Needs, EBSCOhost Database, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p44.

David Molden, 2007, Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture; Earthscan, pg12.

the Finnish Forest Research Institute (FFRI), 2008, Bio-energy from forests, Metla.fi, Web.

Frank Rosillo-Calle, Sarah Hemstock, Peter de Groot, Jeremy Woods; 2007, The Biomass Assessment Handbook: Bioenergy for a Sustainable Environment, Earthscan, pg9.

US Department of Energy (DOE), 2005, ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF BIOENERGY, vienergy.org, Web.

ICRISAT, 2007, Pro-Poor Biofuels Outlook for Asia and Africa: ICRISAT’s Perspective, icrisat.org, Web.

Jean-Marc Jossart, 2008, Boosting Bioenergy in Europe, European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), Web.

Bioenergy, 2008, Life-cycle of Bionegy, Repp.org, Web.

Masdjidin Siregar, Geoff Thompson; 2007, Potential Impacts of Bioenergy Development on Food Security, Volume 5, No. 10, 2007; UNESCAP-CAPSA, Web.

Claudia Ringler, 2006, Global Food, Feed, Fiber and Bioenergy Demand Prospects: Implications for Natural Resources – Drawing on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, International Food Policy Research Institute.

Mohamed Ghannouchi, 2008, Address by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali President of the Republic of Tunisia to the FAO High-Level Conference on “World Food Security : The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy”; 2008; Tunisia online News, tunisiaonlinenews.com, Web.

Jocelyn Mason, World Bank Environment Dept (WBED); 1995, Mainstreaming the Environment: The World Bank Group and the Environment, The World Bank, pg285.