It was proven in the 1970's that biomass, specifically plant mass, can be converted to fuels that will replace every type of fossil fuel currently produced by industry -- and these biomass fuels are essentially non-polluting.
* Fossil fuel materials: coal, oil and natural gas were made by nature from earth biomass that lived over 160 million years ago. Crude fossil fuels contain hydrocarbon compounds that were made by plant life during the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide and water were converted into hydrocarbon rich cellulose. Plants manufacture many other biochemicals in the complex and mysterious act of living, but cellulose and lignin are the compounds that give plants structure, body and strength. They are the main components of plant mass.
* Nature took millions of years to concentrate the ancient plant mass into what we call fossil fuels. The eons long process that converted the once living biomass into hydro-carbon rich fossils also compressed sulfur into the fossil biomass. It is this sulfur that causes acid rain when belched out of power plant smoke stacks. According to Brookhaven National Laboratory 50,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians die each year from exposure to acid rain.
* Mankind through the science of chemical engineering can transform modern biomass into hydrocarbon fuels that contain no sulfur because the fresh plant mass contains no sulfur. And the scientific method of biomass conversion into hydrocarbon fuels requires mere hours instead of eons to accomplish.
* The inherent problem with burning fossil fuels to power industrial energy systems and economies is the mega-ton release of CO 2 into the air. However biomass derived fuels are part of the present day global CO 2 cycle.
The quantity of CO 2 released into the air from burning biomass fuels is equal to the amount of CO 2 the biomass energy crop absorbed while it grew.
* If the energy crop is an annual plant then one years biomass fuel when burned will supply the CO 2 needed for the next year's fuel biomass growth. There will be no net increase in atmospheric CO 2.
* For over 100 years industrialized nations have burned hydrocarbon fuels that are not part of the current ecosystem. The delicate balance between life and climatic cycles is being undone by injecting ancestral CO 2 into the atmosphere.
