New biomass power plant could significantly reduce reliance on food-based biofuels

A new biomass power plant developed by UK researchers could significantly reduce our reliance on food-based biofuels, it has been reported.

Stanley Johnson, former MEP and vice-chairman of the European parliament environment committee, recently reported in the Guardian that researchers at Aston University in the UK may have come up with a solution for a biofuel that doesn’t rely on food-based production.

The biofuel analysis highlighted a biomass power plant as being the solution to our problems, which uses residues and waste instead of energy crops. This means the production method requires no destruction of rainforests or agricultural land for palm-oil production. Indeed, its by-product- biochar – can be used to increase crop yields.

Adverse conditions in the US and elsewhere around the world has led to a summer of extremely low food yields. This has highlighted the problem of using food-based biofuels, as food becomes scarce and expensive.

The most hotly-tipped alternative, rapeseed biodiesel, has failed to live up to its promise as a green panacea. The fuel failed the EU sustainability test, German researchers have claimed, which means that it is unsuitable to be used in the near future.

But this could have paved an opening for the biomass power plant, which is looking like an attractive alternative at the moment. Not only does it tick all the sustainability boxes in terms of the product it produces, but it uses heat instead of incineration, and so produces no emissions. This will tick all the boxes when it comes to European tests.

The first industrial-scale plant of its kind is now in operation, and politicians are looking to jump on the bandwagon and find more similar production methods. Tim Miller is the project manager, and will surely be tipping his new design for great things, as America struggles through a biofuel- driven summer of food scarcity.

Posted by Claire Manning