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Global Biofuel

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Submitted By georgiemrusson
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lGlobal biofuel (Wood and charcoal) * Wood * Wood constitutes the majority of biomass that is burned for fuel and comes in the forms firewood, charcoal, chips, pellets, and sawdust. * The use of wood as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other applications dates back to well before humans when Neanderthals were the predominant species of hominid. * The most troubling aspect of using wood as a fuel is generating the spark to start the fire. Otherwise, wood is readily available, abundant, and can even be collected from the ground if cutting tools are not available. Today, wood is even used in some electric generating applications. * Wood is actually more efficient than many fuels, with about 70% of the energy content (10 MJ/kg) recoverable on average. * Wood is carbon neutral and does not contribute to greenhouse gasses. Burning wood gives off carbon dioxide just like fossil fuels, but this is balanced by the carbon absorbed by the growing trees. * For the poor in developing countries, urban as well as rural, wood is usually the principal source of energy for cooking food and for keeping warm. In these countries an estimated 86 percent of all the wood consumed annually is used as fuel. As populations have grown, this dependence has led inexorably to pressures on the wood resource which all too often have resulted both in the destruction of the forest and in a worsening of the situation of the hundreds of millions of people whose life is conditioned by the products of the forest.

Charcoal

What are the benefits? * Provides a market for poor-quality wood, although there's much more of a market now for firewood, due to the recent increase in the use of wood stoves * Buying locally-produced charcoal reduces the transport involved with imported charcoal, provides local employment and supports the local economy * Helps manage

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