ENERGY FROM BIOMASS AND WASTE: THE CONTRIBUTION OF UTILITY SCALE BIOMASS GASIFICATION PLANTS

The Green Paper on renewable energy technologies (RET) of the European Commission sets as a target the doubling of their contribution from the present 5.6% to about 12%. Moreover, the Kyoto Protocol has added a new impetus in the market penetration of RET. Amongst all the renewable energy sources, biomass represents the highest potential and it is generally accepted that it will have to play the major role in meeting these targets. Utility scale biomass gasification plants are been implemented presently and several plants are under construction world-wide. These plants offer significantly higher efficiencies than traditional steam cycles and improved economies