Does bioenergy contribute to greenhouse gas emissions?
Burning biomass efficiently results in little or no net emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, since the bioenergy crop plants actually took up an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the air when they grew. However, burning conventional fossil fuels such as gasoline, oil, coal or natural gas results in an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the major greenhouse gas which is thought to be responsible for global climate change. Some nitrogen oxides inevitably result from biomass burning (as with all combustion processes) but these are comparable to emissions from natural wildfires, and generally lower than those from burning fossil fuels. Other greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the use of fossil fuels by farm equipment, and with the application of inorganic fertilizers to the bioenergy crop. However, these may be offset by the increase in carbon storage in soil organic matter compared with conventional crops. Utilization of biomass residues which would have ot
