The prevailing image of wood and waste burning as dirty and environmentally harmful is no longer valid

The use of biomass combustion for energy can solve many of our nation's problems: waste cleanup, cheap energy as heat and electricity, conservation of fossil fuel reserves, reduction of our foreign debt, increased local employment, retention of energy dollars in the local economy, improved air quality, land reclamation, and retarding of global warming. Numerous factors combine to produce unprecedented opportunities in the field of biomass energy:

1. Wood and other biomass residues that are now causing expensive disposal problems can be burned as cleanly and efficiently as natural gas, and at a fraction of the cost.
2. New breakthroughs in integrated waste-to-energy systems, from fuel handling, combustion technology and control systems to heat transfer and power generation, have dramatically improved system costs, efficiencies, cleanliness of emissions, maintenance-free operation, and end-use applications.
3. Increasing costs for fossil fuels and for waste disposal, strict environmental regulations and changing political priorities have changed the economics and rules of the energy game.

Source: “BIOMASS ENERGY | State of the Technology, Present Obstacles & Future Potential, A Report for: United States Department of Energy, Conservation and Renewable Energy, Office of Energy Related Inventions; Prepared by Larry Dobson, Northern Light Research & Development | Project Number DE-FG01-89CE15425