Biomass: an alternative to fossil fuels

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Biomass is all organic matter, of vegetable or animal origin, that can be used in energy production. It is obtained through the decomposition of a variety of renewable resources, such as plants, wood, agricultural waste, food waste, excrement and even garbage.

In the electricity sector, it becomes a promising alternative, highlighting cogeneration in the sugar-alcohol sector and charcoal in the steel industry. Moreover, an interesting aspect of biomass as an energy source is the fact that, besides being renewable, it emits less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels and contributes to the reduction of the greenhouse effect, one of the great environmental problems nowadays.

The use of fuel produced from sugarcane instead of gasoline (derived from oil) represents a great social and economic advance and an important measure to preserve the environment. Other types of plants, such as cassava, babassu and oilseeds can also be used for the production of “green fuel“, a good example is biodiesel.

Cemig has partnerships for the development of technologies to generate electricity through charcoal gases and waste from the farming of energy forests and charcoal production. The project to generate energy from biomass gasification to drive fuel cells is also in progress.