Technology
There are many technologies/power plants associated with biopower. For example, one of the most promising is Co-Firing. Co-firing involves substituting coal in an existing power plant furnace. This is the most economic near-term option for introducing new biomass power generation. Co-firing is not as expensive as the other methods because the power plants powered by coal only need minor modification to replace with biomass. Whereas, for others, they create brand-new power plants or make major modifications. Coal fired plants release many air emmissions, but when coal is replaced with biomass, it reduces air emmissions such as sulpher dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Also, there is close to no decrease in efficiency from replacing the coal with biomass. This allows the energy biomass contains to be converted into electricity with efficiency of 33-37% of a modern coal fired power plant. This percentage is one of the greater success rates of the strategies of biopower. Furthermore, acccording to Energy.gov, it states "Biomass gasifiers operate by heating biomass in an environment where the solid biomass breaks down to form a flammable gas, offering several advantages over diectly burning biomass." These advantages include the fact that biomass can be clensed to eliminate negative chemical blends. Also, the gas produced can be put into a system that combines gas and steam turbines to produce electricity. Lastly, the efficiency of the gasifiers can reach 60%.
This picture shows three of the most efficient methods of biopower and how successful each is compare to one another. (biowesleyan.wordpress.com)