One of the taskforces of the IEA (International Energy Agency) is taskforce 33: Thermal Gasification of Biomass, sharing the knowhow on how to build large scale biomass gasification factories. Gasification has the potential to generate Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) from biomass: it even makes sense to import biomass.
Recently it has become clear to me that there is another big advantage to this process.
Thermal gasification produces enough heat to keep the gasification running and some more. At the end of the process you have invested 30 % of the raw energy input (wood) in the gasification and the transformation of syngas to 2 seperated streams of gases: SNG and pure CO2. When you store the CO2 underground the nett result is NEGATIVE CO2 emissions: a CO2 sink! As far as I know the only process with a negative CO2 impact.
Even more reason to invest money and energy in this process.
