What is Biomass?
Biomass is organic matter. In the case of bioenergy, it typically refers to agricultural by-products and residues, woody waste products, and crops and microbes that can be used for fuel.
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The role biomass plays
Sustainable biomass is helping to provide the renewable electricity the UK needs to decarbonise the grid and support more renewables to come online, enabling other sectors to decarbonise, such as transport.
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Where does biomass come from?
Biomass pellets used for bioenergy are generally made of low-grade wood which is a by-product of the production of higher-value wood products from sustainably-managed forests.
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*Across the renewable fuel’s lifecycle.
- Sustaining healthy forests
- Biomass and net zero
- Governance
Forests are harvested for high-value timber that displaces carbon intensive materials like steel and cement. Markets for trees encourage people to grow more trees. Markets for low-grade trees like those used in biomass production, helps landowners improve the health of their forest.
Sustainably sourced biomass used at Drax Power Station in Selby provides a scalable case study of a crucial renewable source of power that has replaced fossil fuels, and is supporting around 6,000 jobs across the North of England – at a time when other coal fired power stations have closed with the loss of thousands of jobs.
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Sustainable Forest Management
FAQs
- What is biomass?
- How is biomass used?
- What is sustainable biomass?
- How is burning wood sustainable?
- How is shipping pellets around the world sustainable?
- What kind of fibre goes into the wood pellets at Drax?
- What certification does Drax use?
- Doesn’t burning biomass produce more emissions than burning coal?
- How is bioenergy renewable?
Biomass is organic matter. In the case of bioenergy, it typically refers to agricultural by-products and residues, woody waste products, and crops and microbes that can be used for fuel.
Biomass used and combusted for energy can come in a number of different forms, ranging from compressed wood pellets – which are used in power stations that have upgraded from coal – to biogas and biofuels, a liquid fuel that can be used to replace fossil fuels in transport.
The term biomass also refers to any type of organic material used for energy in domestic settings, for example wood burned in wood stoves and wood pellets used in domestic biomass boilers.
What is biomass?
Today biomass in the form of wood and wood products remains a widely used energy source for many countries around the world – both for domestic consumption and at grid scale through power stations, where it’s often used to replace fossil fuels with much higher lifecycle carbon emissions.
Drax Power Station has been using compressed wood pellets (a form of biomass) since 2003, when it began research and development work co-firing it with coal. It fully converted its first full generating unit to run only on compressed wood pellets in 2013, lowering the carbon footprint of the electricity it produced by more than 80% across the renewable fuel’s lifecycle. Today the power station runs mostly on sustainable biomass.
Renewable bioenergy at Drax Power Station
Sustainable biomass is made of the low grade and low quality by-products from the forestry industry that don’t negatively impact the growth of the forest, the amount of carbon being stored, biodiversity and the socioeconomic wellbeing of the communities that surround them. When used for heat and power, sustainable biomass releases significantly less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels.
Using forestry residues from harvesting also helps reduce the risk of forest fires, pests and disease outbreaks in places like California where there is very little forest management.
Our Responsible Sourcing policy
Working forest in LaSalle BioEnergy catchment area, Louisiana
Biomass comes from organic, living matter that is in a constant cycle of growth and renewal, absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere in the process. So when biomass is used to generate energy – such as heat and/or electricity – the CO2 released is offset by the amount of CO2 it absorbed from the atmosphere while it was growing as well as new growth.
Biomass is a very small part (just 4% in the US) of a broader forest products industry that includes the harvesting of wood for solid wood product sectors such as construction, where the use of wood reduces the carbon impact in those industries as well as locking away the carbon for longer.
What is sustainable forest management?
Watching a biomass train as it prepares to enter Drax Power Station’s rail unloading building 2 (RUB2)
North America is a key supply region because of its well managed commercial forestry industry, commitment to sustainability and good infrastructure. The working forests in the US South alone are about three times the size of the UK and forest stocks have almost doubled since the 1950s.
The UK does not have sufficient forest capacity to meet demand and trucking pellets from Scotland to Drax Power Station would release more CO2 than shipping the pellets from the US South.
Drax has a low-carbon supply chain for its biomass and is working with its partners to further decarbonise the supply chain. Drax reports its supply chain emissions in its Annual Report, which is independently audited.
Our carbon negative ambition
Drax’s pellets are made from a mix of harvesting residues (including tops and limbs, low-grade roundwood and the by-products of active forest management activities such as thinning) and secondary residues (such as sawdust). The wood is low grade with low commercial value, and in some circumstances has a limited or unavailable market.
In some regions, such as British Columbia, the harvesting residues we would use to make biomass pellets to generate renewable energy would otherwise be burnt on site to reduce the risk of forest fires and pest and disease outbreaks. As of 2021: Sawmill and other wood industry residue (38.0%), Branches and tops (6.3%), thinnings (16.3%), Low-grade roundwood (36.9%), Agricultural residues (2.5%).
What is a biomass wood pellet?
Drax’s biomass complies with stringent standards set out in UK and EU law. Drax is independently audited by UK regulator Ofgem and is required to demonstrate that the biomass used is sustainably sourced.
Drax’s sustainable biomass sourcing policy goes beyond existing regulations and is led by science, best practice and transparency. We also engage with voluntary certification schemes and systems such as the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), among others.
Our certifications
Unlike coal, sustainable biomass doesn’t add any new CO2 to the atmosphere. When sourced sustainably, biomass is in a constant cycle of renewal and carbon absorption across a landscape.
When sustainable biomass is used to generate renewable electricity, it only releases the CO2 that was stored while the trees were growing before they were harvested. Because the biomass is sustainable, that CO2 is already being absorbed by other growing forests. Conversely, burning coal releases carbon that has been locked up for millions of years, increasing the amount of new carbon accumulated in the atmosphere.
What is reforestation and afforestation?
Sustainable biomass is renewable because of the closed carbon cycle created when trees grow and take CO2 from the atmosphere. Whether the wood is used for bioenergy or these trees naturally decompose, the same amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
The cycle remains in balance because the working forests which supply the low-grade wood used for biomass are replanted and these growing trees absorb more carbon.
The CO2 released when biomass is used to generate power is CO2 which was already in the atmosphere and is therefore not increasing the amount of carbon dioxide. This is different to fossil fuels, which release CO2 into the atmosphere which had previously been locked away underground for millions of years – that’s why fossil fuels contribute to climate change and sustainable biomass does not.
What is the carbon cycle?
Biomass is organic matter. In the case of bioenergy, it typically refers to agricultural by-products and residues, woody waste products, and crops and microbes that can be used for fuel.
Biomass used and combusted for energy can come in a number of different forms, ranging from compressed wood pellets – which are used in power stations that have upgraded from coal – to biogas and biofuels, a liquid fuel that can be used to replace fossil fuels in transport.
The term biomass also refers to any type of organic material used for energy in domestic settings, for example wood burned in wood stoves and wood pellets used in domestic biomass boilers.
What is biomass?
Today biomass in the form of wood and wood products remains a widely used energy source for many countries around the world – both for domestic consumption and at grid scale through power stations, where it’s often used to replace fossil fuels with much higher lifecycle carbon emissions.
Drax Power Station has been using compressed wood pellets (a form of biomass) since 2003, when it began research and development work co-firing it with coal. It fully converted its first full generating unit to run only on compressed wood pellets in 2013, lowering the carbon footprint of the electricity it produced by more than 80% across the renewable fuel’s lifecycle. Today the power station runs mostly on sustainable biomass.
Renewable bioenergy at Drax Power Station
View MoreSustainable biomass is made of the low grade and low quality by-products from the forestry industry that don’t negatively impact the growth of the forest, the amount of carbon being stored, biodiversity and the socioeconomic wellbeing of the communities that surround them. When used for heat and power, sustainable biomass releases significantly less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels.
Using forestry residues from harvesting also helps reduce the risk of forest fires, pests and disease outbreaks in places like California where there is very little forest management.
Our Responsible Sourcing policy
Working forest in LaSalle BioEnergy catchment area, Louisiana
Biomass comes from organic, living matter that is in a constant cycle of growth and renewal, absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere in the process. So when biomass is used to generate energy – such as heat and/or electricity – the CO2 released is offset by the amount of CO2 it absorbed from the atmosphere while it was growing as well as new growth.
Biomass is a very small part (just 4% in the US) of a broader forest products industry that includes the harvesting of wood for solid wood product sectors such as construction, where the use of wood reduces the carbon impact in those industries as well as locking away the carbon for longer.
What is sustainable forest management?
View MoreWatching a biomass train as it prepares to enter Drax Power Station’s rail unloading building 2 (RUB2)
North America is a key supply region because of its well managed commercial forestry industry, commitment to sustainability and good infrastructure. The working forests in the US South alone are about three times the size of the UK and forest stocks have almost doubled since the 1950s.
The UK does not have sufficient forest capacity to meet demand and trucking pellets from Scotland to Drax Power Station would release more CO2 than shipping the pellets from the US South.
Drax has a low-carbon supply chain for its biomass and is working with its partners to further decarbonise the supply chain. Drax reports its supply chain emissions in its Annual Report, which is independently audited.
Our carbon negative ambition
View MoreDrax’s pellets are made from a mix of harvesting residues (including tops and limbs, low-grade roundwood and the by-products of active forest management activities such as thinning) and secondary residues (such as sawdust). The wood is low grade with low commercial value, and in some circumstances has a limited or unavailable market.
In some regions, such as British Columbia, the harvesting residues we would use to make biomass pellets to generate renewable energy would otherwise be burnt on site to reduce the risk of forest fires and pest and disease outbreaks. As of 2021: Sawmill and other wood industry residue (38.0%), Branches and tops (6.3%), thinnings (16.3%), Low-grade roundwood (36.9%), Agricultural residues (2.5%).
What is a biomass wood pellet?
View MoreDrax’s biomass complies with stringent standards set out in UK and EU law. Drax is independently audited by UK regulator Ofgem and is required to demonstrate that the biomass used is sustainably sourced.
Drax’s sustainable biomass sourcing policy goes beyond existing regulations and is led by science, best practice and transparency. We also engage with voluntary certification schemes and systems such as the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), among others.
Our certifications
View MoreUnlike coal, sustainable biomass doesn’t add any new CO2 to the atmosphere. When sourced sustainably, biomass is in a constant cycle of renewal and carbon absorption across a landscape.
When sustainable biomass is used to generate renewable electricity, it only releases the CO2 that was stored while the trees were growing before they were harvested. Because the biomass is sustainable, that CO2 is already being absorbed by other growing forests. Conversely, burning coal releases carbon that has been locked up for millions of years, increasing the amount of new carbon accumulated in the atmosphere.
What is reforestation and afforestation?
View MoreSustainable biomass is renewable because of the closed carbon cycle created when trees grow and take CO2 from the atmosphere. Whether the wood is used for bioenergy or these trees naturally decompose, the same amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
The cycle remains in balance because the working forests which supply the low-grade wood used for biomass are replanted and these growing trees absorb more carbon.
The CO2 released when biomass is used to generate power is CO2 which was already in the atmosphere and is therefore not increasing the amount of carbon dioxide. This is different to fossil fuels, which release CO2 into the atmosphere which had previously been locked away underground for millions of years – that’s why fossil fuels contribute to climate change and sustainable biomass does not.
