6.1. The potential for modernized bioenergy
Hall [47] acknowledged there is a growing recognition in the
world that the use of biomass energy in larger commercial systems
based on sustainable, already accumulated resources and residues
can help improve natural resource management. If bioenergy were
modernized (i.e., the application of advanced technology to the process
of converting raw biomass into modern, easy-to-use energy
carriers such as electricity, liquid or gaseous fuels, or processed
solid fuels), much more useful energy could be extracted from
biomass than at present, even without increasing primary bioenergy
supplies. Biomass energy has the potential to be “modernized”
worldwide, i.e., produced and used efficiently and cost competitively,
generally in the more convenient forms of gases, liquids,
or electricity. Table 7 lists a few of the technologies which can
convert solid biomass into clean, convenient energy carriers. Most
of these technologies are commercially available today. If widely
implemented in combination with sustainable supply of biomass
feedstocks, such technologies would enable biomass energy to play
a much more significant role in the future than it does today.