- Energy that is derived by directly burning plant material and animal waste, or by burning gasses and fuels produced from plant material and animal waste.
- As simple as burning dung to cook over, or as complex as producing electricity from methane harvested from decomposing municipal waste.
- Charcoal is the produced by partially burning wood to remove moisture.
- Advantages include higher energy content/unit of mass compared to wood, easy portability, and availability in developing countries.
- Disadvantages include deforestation, negative effect on respiratory system of producers and consumers of charcoal.
- Garbage power is the energy can be produced by burning garbage directly to produce steam for electricity generation.
- Methane that is produceds by bacteria decomposing waste in landfills can be harvested and burned to henerate electricity.
- Garbage is readily available
- Requires development of infrastructure to develop and transport methane from landfills.
- Ethanol is the alcohol produced by the fermentation of plant materials.
- Produced mainly from corn int the USA, and from sugercane in Brazil.
- Mixed with gasoline to produce gasohol
- Advantages include domestic availebility, Cleaner burning than gas alone, and infrastructure is an place already.
- Disadvantages include, using food resources to produce fuel, lower energy content than gas alone, alternatives to water and fertilizer hungry corn are needed.
- Biodiesel is the produced by removing oil from plants or algae. The oil is then mixed with diesel or burned directly in modified diesel engines
- Advantages include high net energy, better mileage than conventional diesel, lower CO and CO2 emissions.
- Disadvantages include Land used for fuel instead of food, high land use, net energy highly dependent on type of crop, higher NOx emissions than conventional diesel
- Algea is a very promising source of oil for biodiesel production
- Algea can be grown in tanks with little land disturbance
- Because of lower land use, food prices are not directly affected
- Co2 from conventional power plants and factories could be used to feed algae in biofuel plants
- Burning solid biomass is directly burning wood, plant materials, dung, and charcoal to produce heat, cook, and in some cases used for electricity generation or industrial use
- Advantages incluse local availability of fuel, no net carbon increase if source is grown sustainably, relatively low cost of development
- Disadvantages include indoor air pollution from cooking on poorly ventilated stoves, harvesting leads to disrupted land prone to erosion, and habitats are disrupted from high land use