Introduction and context: global biomass resources – types of biomass, quantities and accessibility. Biomass from agriculture, forestry, energy crops and organic wastes

This chapter gives an overview of the available biomass resources globally today as well as the potential for enhancements of the production, and also shows how agricultural and forestry waste can be utilized as resource more efficiently. Environmental issues and concerns are covered as well. Globally tbe official figures for the use of biomass as an energy resource show that it is approximately 13% of all primary energy used. This is according to the World Bank figures. If we go back 30 years, the official figure was almost 0%. The reason for the difference is that in 1980 only material that was traded was registered and accounted for. As it was obvious that bioenergy was very important in many countries although not being traded the new calculation was made. The figure of 13% has principally been maintained for 20 years, although the total energy usage has increased a lot, around 30-40%. The real production of biomass still is significantly larger as a lot of it is just decomposing in the fields or in the forests. Some estimates gives a biomass production around 300,000-600,000 TWh/y, which is 2-4 times the total energy utilization today.