1 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:33,660 Hello again 2 00:32:34,260 --> 00:32:36,700 in this video in the series of renewable energies, 3 00:32:36,700 --> 00:32:40,860 we're going to talk about biomass biomass, obviously bio 4 00:32:40,860 --> 00:32:44,540 living things mass, we've all got mass, everything's got mass. 5 00:32:45,100 --> 00:32:47,560 So our power generation 6 00:32:49,060 --> 00:32:50,600 plants are designed 7 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,660 or were designed to burn coal and gas and oil 8 00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,660 to actually turn them into biomass burning, 9 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,900 power producing power stations. 10 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:04,560 It doesn't take a lot to change it because at the end of the day, 11 00:33:05,380 --> 00:33:07,680 a coal fired or gas fired 12 00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:12,100 power station all it does is use gas and coal 13 00:33:12,220 --> 00:33:15,140 to turn water into steam at high pressure, 14 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,880 superheated pass it through a turbine. 15 00:33:18,220 --> 00:33:20,400 Now coal is delivered to these plants. 16 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,160 It is then, it's not sat in the bottom of the furnace 17 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:28,200 it is ground down and it is sprayed like a fuel 18 00:33:29,380 --> 00:33:30,880 and it releases a 19 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:34,040 great amount of energy in one hit. 20 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,180 Now the tag to that is. 21 00:33:37,180 --> 00:33:40,400 These fuels are 600 million, 700 million years old 22 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,420 were releasing into the atmosphere, CO2 that should not be there 23 00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:47,540 because it was locked away for a reason. 24 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:50,740 It will upset the balance of our planet. 25 00:33:50,740 --> 00:33:53,880 So you grow trees, a tree, a pine tree. 26 00:33:54,060 --> 00:33:58,020 Ten years to grow to maturity, we cut it down with pelletise it, 27 00:33:58,020 --> 00:34:00,560 turn it into pellets. We take all the moisture out. 28 00:34:00,740 --> 00:34:04,380 We ship it to the biomass power station 29 00:34:04,380 --> 00:34:07,600 it then grinds it down, use it exactly the same as the coal. 30 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,080 But you say the CO2 is still produced, 31 00:34:11,260 --> 00:34:14,680 yes, but that tree has absorbed CO2 32 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:18,500 in the last ten years, we're not upsetting the balance 33 00:34:19,240 --> 00:34:21,400 of the ecosystem. 34 00:34:21,580 --> 00:34:24,440 That CO2 has already been there, but very, 35 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,560 very short time, a short time ago. 36 00:34:27,700 --> 00:34:32,880 Whereas the CO2 from coal, gas and oil has been locked away for so long. 37 00:34:32,900 --> 00:34:34,660 It would upset the balance. 38 00:34:34,660 --> 00:34:37,820 So not only do we use wood when we 39 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:40,420 power a 40 00:34:40,420 --> 00:34:44,120 biomass generation plant, we also use straw. 41 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,400 I know that for a fact I keep horses, 42 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:51,280 and the cost of a bale of straw has quadrupled in the last year. 43 00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,760 We grow fields and fields of maize. 44 00:34:55,060 --> 00:34:59,120 The heads are taken away for cattle feed the leaves, the stems 45 00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:02,480 ground down, compressed, taken away and burned 46 00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:05,840 in biomass generation plants. 47 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,980 Sunlowers, the seeds are taken away pressed. 48 00:35:08,980 --> 00:35:11,760 The oil taken out that is used to burn as well. 49 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:14,960 It's not just solids at the end of the day, 50 00:35:15,620 --> 00:35:18,320 if it's grown and it's been alive and it's died, 51 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,200 whether it be a plant or animal matter makes no difference. 52 00:35:21,620 --> 00:35:24,700 You can burn it and it will produce or release. 53 00:35:24,700 --> 00:35:28,460 I keep saying produce it's not it's release energy you can't produce energy. 54 00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:31,200 Energy is released, it is converted. 55 00:35:31,720 --> 00:35:35,180 All these fields of sunflowers, you see all these fields 56 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,320 of maize rape seed. 57 00:35:38,860 --> 00:35:41,840 Yeah, take the seed away, crush the seed, 58 00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,380 take the oil out what's left. 59 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,260 Used to be fed to cattle sometimes, or it was ground down 60 00:35:48,260 --> 00:35:50,260 and put back into the soil to fertilize it. 61 00:35:50,260 --> 00:35:54,560 So it's not just byproducts we use in biomass and generation plants. 62 00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:59,080 We actually are now growing crops to burn. 63 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:02,480 Again you're sat there going but you're still releasing CO2. 64 00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:03,820 Yes, we are. 65 00:36:03,820 --> 00:36:08,200 But it's what we would call carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide 66 00:36:08,500 --> 00:36:13,000 that that plant has taken in over it's years, growth is one year. 67 00:36:13,540 --> 00:36:15,160 You take it away and burn it. 68 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:16,320 You're not upsetting the balance. 69 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:18,800 The balance is still there. We have got equilibrium. 70 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:23,740 The problem comes when you are adding carbon dioxide by burning hydrocarbons 71 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:28,600 in the presence of oxygen producing water and as a byproduct CO2. 72 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:31,320 Again, it shouldn't be there. 73 00:36:31,860 --> 00:36:35,280 Whereas the CO2 you are producing from dead 74 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,840 plants and dead animal matter in your biomass plants. 75 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:40,320 It's been there already. 76 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,900 It's there. It's around us. It's only one year old. 77 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,300 You are not upsetting the balance, even though you are still emitting CO2.