Plants Providing Power?

What does biomass mean? It is ethanol,biogas and biodiesal made from plants. Biomass can easily take the place of our existing full systems, in fact ethanol produced from corn is already added into the gasoline in the US. Biomass however is much less efficient than other energy forms. For example to power all of the world's vehicles with biofuels it would be necessary to double the amount of current farming land. However progress in biomass research is making it more efficient. Most biomass is now made from starches, oil, and sugar. Scientists are testing organisms that digest the cellulose in wood which in turn would easily yield a liquid fuel. Switchgrass also seems to be promising it grows a lot faster than corn, is less susceptible to disease and uses less fertilizer. Thomas Foust of the National Bioenergy Center stated, "If you increase automobile efficiency to the level of hybrid and go with the switchgrass crop you could meet 2/3 of the US transportation fuel demand with no additional land."

Personally I do not think biomass is the best alternative energy. Farm land would need to be increased for crops which would cause more deforestation, and add to an increase in pollution due to the unsustainable methods used in agriculture. Crops such as corn would be genetically engineered, which is also a another problem.