The Earth's sustainable model.
Most of the carbon used to create bioenergy is taken from the atmosphere and later returned to the atmosphere. The nutrients which create bioenergy are taken from the soil and later returned to the soil. The residues from one part of the cycle form the inputs to the next stage of the cycle.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is withdrawn from the atmosphere by the process of plant growth (photosynthesis) and converted into vegetation biomass (trees, grasses and crops). Biomoass can be converted into building materials, paper, fuels, food, animal feed and other products.Organic by-products and minerals from the processing facility in the diagram at the right (from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) may be returned to the land where the biomass grew, thereby recycling some of the nutrients, such as potassium and phosphorus, that were used for plant growth. Throughout the cycle, some carbon dioxide from biomass is always released back into the atmosphere because carbon is required by vegetative matter in order to produce biomass!
TBE's biorefinery 'recycles' the energy in biomass.
In our process, separated residues may be combined with forestry and crop residues, animal wastes and biomass crops to provide the feedstocks for biomass processing. Many useful products can be derived from biomass, including fuels, chemicals and electric power. TBE's technology minimizes the waste stream because it recycles materials prior to processing thereby helping to close the natural biomass cycle.
