Disadvantages of Biomass

Biomass power is renewable power or renewable energy that has been generated or obtained from biomass. Biomass is biological or organic matter taken from plants, trees, wood, garbage & waste material, alcohol fuels, etc.

• A high level of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere due to the combustion of biomass which could add on to global warming.

• There is no reduction in emission levels using biomass and on the contrary biomass produce high amounts of pollutants leading to air pollution.

• A lot of water would be required for the huge amount of crop cultivation. This again is a big drawback as water is one resource that people require in high quantities for the normal life. Hence it is difficult to get more water for additional crop cultivation for generating biomass energy.

• There are many people starving in many countries because of lack of food resources. The use of such crop and food products only for the sake of generating biomass energy is being opposed (understandably) by many countries.

• It is also difficult to grow and cultivate seasoned crops all over the year for generating biomass energy. This also would require a large amount of waste and garbage.

• Producing biomass energy is an expensive process as it requires a large amount of biomass material. This would involve a large amount of traveling to collect biomass which is expensive. The infrastructure required for generating biomass energy is very expensive including the maintenance cost.

• The amount of time taken for the complete process is very high.

• In small scale generation, the amount of energy required to plant and cultivate the crops throughout the biomass generation process is higher in comparison to the amount of biomass energy generated.

• The amount of fuel required to travel long distances for collecting biomass material is very high.

You can weigh the positives against the negatives and see for yourself.