Arundo Donax (Giant Reed) - A tall perennial reed, growing in fresh and moderately saline waters potentially used as a biomass feedstock. Other common names include Carrizo, Spanish cane, wild cane, giant cane and arundo.
Baseload Plant – A plant that is normally operated to take all or part of the minimum load of a system and which therefore produces electricity at an essentially constant rate and runs continuously.
Biofuels – Any solid, gaseous or liquid fuel obtained from biomass; this may be in its natural form (e.g., wood, peat) or a commercially produced form (e.g., ethanol from sugarcane residue, diesel fuel from waste vegetable oils).
Biomass – A collective term for all organic substances of relatively recent (non-geological) origin that can be used for energy production, including industrial, commercial, and agricultural wood and plant residues; municipal organic waste; animal manure; and crops directly produced for energy purposes. Biomass can be solid (e.g., wood, straw), liquid (biofuels), or gaseous (biogases).
Btu – British thermal unit
Carbon Footprint – A measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.
Carbon Neutral – Describing an activity or process that does not generate a net increase in the level of carbon in a given system, especially the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thus, carbon neutrality.
C&D Debris – Construction and demolition materials often disposed of in landfills. Common C&D materials include lumber, drywall, metals, masonry (brick, concrete, etc.), carpet, plastic, pipe, rocks, dirt, paper, cardboard, or green waste related to land development. Of these, metals are the most commonly recycled material while lumber makes up the majority of debris that still goes to a landfill.
Feedstock – A raw or processed organic material that is chemically reacted to produce fuel; e.g., trees, grasses, agricultural wastes, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants and municipal wastes.
Fluid Bed Combustion - A process in which pulverized or granulated fuel and air are introduced into a fluidized bed of sand or some other material, where combustion takes place. This is classified as bubbling or circulating, depending on whether the bed material remains in place or is transported out of the vessel by the fluidizing gas and then recovered and returned to the bed. Thus, fluidized bed combustor.
Gasification – A thermochemical process that converts a solid or liquid fuel source (e.g., biomass) to a gaseous fuel.
Gas Turbines – A rotary engine in which fuel or gaseous fuel is burned to produce electric power and heat. Hot combustion gases are passed to the turbine, where they expand to drive a generator and are then used to run a compressor.
Greenhouse Effect – The trapping of heat by greenhouse gases that allow incoming solar radiation to pass through the Earth's atmosphere but prevent the escape to outer space of a portion of the outgoing infrared radiation from the surface and lower atmosphere. This process has kept the earth's temperature approximately 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise; it occurs naturally but may also be enhanced by certain human activities; e.g., the burning of fossil fuels.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) – Any of the gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmosphere and clouds. This causes the greenhouse effect.
Medium-Btu Gas - A gas having a heating value approximately half that of natural gas; i.e. about 500 Btu; a classification for products of biomass gasification.
Megawatt (MW) - A unit of power equivalent to one million watts (1000 kilowatts); e.g., the amount of electric energy required to light 10,000 100-watt light bulbs.
Megawatt-Hour (MWh) - A unit of electricity equivalent to the amount of energy produced by one megawatt of power over a period of one hour. Similarly, megawatt-month, megawatt-year.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) – A general term for the solid materials that result from the accumulation of all residential, commercial, and light industrial waste; normally handled by local municipalities and typically deposited in a landfill. MSW consists of metal, glass, paper, plastic, dirt, vegetative matter and the like, either recyclable or non-recyclable in nature.
Peak Oil – The highest point of production of a given energy resource, in this case, oil.
Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) - A legal contract between an electricity generator and a purchaser of energy or capacity (power or ancillary services).
Pyrolosis - The thermal decomposition of biomass at high temperatures in the absence of air; the end product is a mixture of solids (char), liquids (oxygenated oils) and gases (methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide) with the proportions determined by operating temperature, pressure, oxygen content and other conditions.
Renewable Energy – Any energy resource that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and either derived directly from solar energy (solar thermal, photochemical and photoelectric), indirectly from the sun (wind, hydropower and photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from other natural energy flows (geothermal, tidal, wave and current energy). Contrasted with nonrenewable energy forms such as oil, coal and uranium.
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) – A market based policy requiring that a minimum percentage of all electricity be provided from renewable energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar and hydro.
Stoker Combustion - A continuous mechanical apparatus for feeding fuel into a boiler or furnace, handling the byproducts and controlling the air ventillation of the fuel.
Sustainable Resources (energy) – 1. Describing activities that make use of the Earth's living and physical resources, including humans and their technologies, cultures and institutions, in a way that does not diminish their ability to support future generations. 2. Specifically, the consumption of energy in a manner that emphasizes renewable sources and the judicious use of non-renewable sources.
Syngas – Synthetic gas; a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide obtained by the reforming of methane, used as a fuel and as an intermediate in the production of various chemicals.
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