How does growing willow help supply fuel for our energy needs?
Biomass crops can be viewed as a large battery that collects and stores solar energy. In a battery, chemical energy is stored and is used to generate electricity at necessary times and intervals. Plants absorb their energy from the sun; convert it into chemically stored energy in the form of bonds within the sugars, carbohydrates, and lignin structures in the wood. These bonds are broken, releasing the stored energy during the burning process. During this cyclical energy process, CO2 is taken up during photosynthesis, bonded and stored during growth. When it is used for a fuel source it is released back into the environment. We call the complete cycle of growing, harvesting and use of the biomass a CO2 neutral process because all the CO2 that goes into growing the crop is the amount of C02 that comes out. It is also referred to as the CO2 closed loop cycle. For every 100g units of CO2 put into the willow biomass cycle, 5g of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. When the Willow biomass
