What is Biomass?
AES is focused on technology that creates energy using biomass fuel sources. Biomass energy is energy from plants and plant-derived materials—and has been in use since people began burning wood to cook food and keep warm. Biomass sources include food crops, grassy and woody plants, residues from agriculture or forestry, organic components of municipal and industrial wastes and animal waste such as cow manure and chicken litter. Fundamentally, biomass is stored solar energy that man can convert to electricity or fuel.

Don't Waste Your Waste- What Do You Pay To Throw Fuel Away?
Biomass offers many environmental benefits, as discussed below- but perhaps the most appealing part is the savings that biomass energy can offer your company. AES is able to diminish or remove our customer's dependence on fossil fuels as well as eliminate expensive waste streams. By eliminating waste at its source and converting it into energy using environmentally friendly gasification technology, AES provides its customers value at multiple levels, as well as promoting responsible utliization of the earth's natural resources.

Gasification- The Cleanest Method Of Combustion
The newest method for energy generation is known as gasification. This method captures 65-70% of the energy present in solid fuels by first converting it to combustible gases. These gases are then burned, like we currently burn natural gas, to create energy. AES utilizes gasification technology on every energy project we design.

History of Biomass
Prior to the industrial revolution, biomass satisfied nearly all of man’s energy demands. Up until the 1860s, the U.S. used biomass, in the form of wood, for nearly 91% of all energy consumption. In 1992 biomass generated $1.8 billion in personal and corporate income and employed 66,000 workers. Although presently the majority of humankind’s energy requirements are fulfilled by fossil fuel combustion, 14% of the world still utilizes biomass.

Why Biomass?
Biomass is an attractive energy source for a number of reasons. First, it is a renewable energy source. Biomass is also more evenly distributed over the earth's surface than fossil fuel energy sources, and may be harnessed using more cost effective technologies. It provides us the opportunity to be more energy self-sufficient. It helps to reduce climate change (global warming). It also helps U.S. farmers & ranchers and provides rural job opportunities.

Using biomass to create energy has positive environmental implications. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas. Plants collect and store carbon dioxide to aid in the photosynthesis process. As plants or other matter decompose, or natural fires occur, CO2 is released. Before the use of fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide cycle was stable; the same amount that was released was sequestered, but it has since been disrupted. In the past 150 years, the period since the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen from around 150 ppm to 330 ppm, and are expected to double before 2050!