Burning biomass with coal reduces emissions.

• Position: Greenhouse Gases

Across the Southeast, mixing wood and other forest biomass with coal to create energy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to just burning coal alone, according to a research paper from North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

"If we look at all the coal-tired boilers in the Southeastern U.S. that aren't currently using biomass, and we maximize the amount of biomass that they can potentially cofire, we generate an amount of energy equivalent to 5.3% of nuclear, coal, and natural gas electric power sector energy consumption in the region," declares Robert Abt, professor of forest resource economics, codirector of the Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium, and lead author of the study. "We estimate that biomass can achieve significant greenhouse gas reductions, but exact reductions vary by place, time, and a number of other factors.

"Besides that, there are important impacts on current industrial users to consider."

Data was broken down regionally and subregionally to account for differences in both demand and supply of forest biomass. "The southern part of the country has the best data to analyze the biological and economic components of a response to new markets."

The researchers...