Biomass Vs Coal Essay

Biomass vs Coal

Did you know that biomass produces 4.7% of the U.S. electricity? While coal produces 18.5% of the U.S. electricity? Coal is a nonrenewable resource which means that it cannot replenish itself in a human lifetime. Biomass, on the other hand, is a renewable resource which means that it can replenish itself in a human lifetime. People should use biomass preferably over coal because biomass is a renewable resource and has many more uses than coal.

Coal, when burned, can be a hazardous material creating many greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide. The article, " Coal power plant divides Navajo tribe: some have jobs, some are sick" published by the Los Angeles Times states that these

But, biomass has an efficient, renewable way of clearing away these greenhouse gases. The new biomass, such as trees, plants such as corn, use these greenhouse gases to make their food for them to grow. As a result of this, the plants and trees get bigger and are able to get harvested and to be able to be burned to create electricity or other things.

From the experiment, " Energy Use Simulation", the white beans represented 92% of the white beans represented nonrenewable resources while the green beams represented renewable resources. This experiment shows that there may not be as many and they may not make as much energy such as coal. However, the renewable resources can be reused and in the long run, the renewable resources lasted longer than the nonrenewable resources.

Although the U.S. has a massive supply of coal in their possession, it will not be able to stay around much longer. It takes coal about 240 years to be able to replenish itself to be used by humans. At the rate at which we burn coal for electricity, we should be out of coal by it is able to replenish itself. Biomass only takes about 5 months to about 40 years to replenish itself. Biomass is so much lower than coal because we practically have biomass