Bioenergy - what is it and what can we use it for?

Being able to heat their home is a prerequisite for us to be able to live in our northern latitudes. To achieve the climate goals, however, we all need help to reduce our environmental impact. By heating your house with bioenergy (with biofuels such as pellets), you can often reduce both your climate footprint and your heating costs. So what exactly is bioenergy and what can it be used for? What are the advantages and possible disadvantages of bioenergy? We thought we would answer that in the text that follows.

What is bioenergy?

The energy extracted from biofuels is called bioenergy. More specifically, the energy is chemically stored solar energy that is bound up by biomass through photosynthesis. When plants die, they give off energy that we can use. Biofuels are carbon neutral. This means that the carbon dioxide emissions formed during combustion are as large as those that are bound up during its growth phase in nature.

So how does it work?

By binding different forms of biomass with the help of photosynthesis, we can create energy, ie bioenergy. Through photosynthesis, the energy from light is stored in chemical bonds. There, living organisms take care of the work. This energy is used, among other things, to heat properties, for electricity, or as fuel for vehicles.

It is impossible to miss the fact that nature is absolutely incredible. The plants use the sun's energy to grow. At the same time, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air. When trees are cut down to be used as timber or raw material in production, some of the trees remain in nature or at the sawmills and in the forest industry. These residues are then used to create biofuel, which in turn generates bioenergy.

What are the benefits of bioenergy?

One of the biggest advantages of bioenergy is that its production has no effect on the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. This is because the fuel is carbon neutral. This is important as we should do everything we can to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Compared to heating with an oil boiler or direct-acting electricity, bioenergy is a very clean energy source.

Another great advantage of bioenergy is the fact that it is a renewable energy source. This means that the energy comes from sources that are constantly renewed naturally and thus never run out.

By extracting this energy, we can make use of residual products from the forest industry that would otherwise be wasted. These can be, for example, branches, twigs, and bark.

We can reduce the content of greenhouse gases by planting new trees. In this way, we work against climate change. At the same time, we produce new biomaterials that emit bioenergy. These can eventually replace fossil raw materials. Newly planted trees grow much faster than older trees. Therefore, they also bind more