Cape & Islands Energy Information Clearinghouse

CIGoGreen: The Cape & Islands Go Green Guide & Campaign "Green Pages" Sustainable Energy Calendar Energy Action Plans Forums

Green Power by Town

Solar Wind

Current Fact Destruction Current Vision Construction

Content Guide

Bioenergy & Biofuels

Bioenergy covers a broad range of solid, gaseous, and liquid fuels derived from living organisms and human activities. Bioenergy technology converts the chemical energy stored in organic matter or its by-products into electricity and heat or, in the case of vehicles, into mechanical energy. Biofuels are considered renewable to the extent that they produce useful energy in a manner that does not deplete finite resources or add to net emissions of greenhouse gases.

In the Cape & Islands region, biofuels currently account for the majority of "local" renewable energy production: Municipal solid waste collected in Cape Cod communities and then sent west via the "trash train" is burned at the SEMASS facility in Rochester and thereby converted into electricity. On a more promising note, biodiesel is finding growing application for transportation and heating purposes, while ethanol is attracting local attention as the United States looks for ways to decrease reliance on foreign oil.

This page provides background information on bioenergy sources and local applications:

Baseline Information
Local Applications

Baseline Information
Bioenergy sources were the first fuels to be harnessed by human civilization - consider the campfire. In undeveloped and rapidly developing countries, hundreds of millions of people continue to rely on wood, peat, and dung for heating and cooking purposes. Refined biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are widely used in many nations and gaining increasing prominence in the United States.

Bioenergy resources may be categorized in many ways. Here's one approach:

• Primary biofuels are wood, grasses, and other plant materials that are used directly.
• Secondary biofuels include municipal solid waste (MSW), pallets and construction debris, biosolids (No. 2!), agricultural residue, yard waste and compost, and other materials that may be used as energy resources but were not generated for that purpose. They also include landfill gas (LFG) resulting from the decomposition of organic materials at MSW disposal sites and digester gas resulting from similar processes at wastewater treatment plants.
• Derivative or refined biofuels include those manufactured from organic matter, such as ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen.

Biofuels differ widely in terms of application, energy content, and environmental impact. This section is intended to provide background on the fuels and technologies being applied or considered for use in the Cape & Islands region. Click here if you would like to contribute information or to be notified when its content has been updated.

Local Applications
In the Cape & Islands region, bioenergy is most widely used for heating purposes and aesthetic reasons - consider wood and pellet stoves as well as fireplaces.

Biodiesel is available for use on the Cape and Vineyard as a substitute for fuel oil in home heating systems and as a subsitute for "dinosaur" diesel in cars, trucks, buses, construction equipment, and other machines.

Ethanol - the darling of the media, politicians, farmers, and a handful of large corporations - is not yet locally available, though many vehicles traveling in the region are equipped to run on this fuel.

MSW from many local communities is shipped to the SEMASS plant in Rochester, where it is burned to generate electricity.

Other bioenergy sources exist but are not being harnessed.

This section is intended to provide detailed information on local bioenergy resources, applications, and development activities. Click here if you would like to contribute information to this section or to be notified when its content has been updated.

Last updated 08.25.06