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Combustible
Renewables and Waste
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Combustible renewables & waste is comprised of solid biomass, liquid biomass, biogas, industrial waste and municipal waste. Note that for biomass commodities, only the amounts specifically used for energy purposes (a small part of the total) are included in the energy statistics. Therefore, the non-energy use of biomass is not taken into consideration and quantities are null by definition. Data under this heading are often based on small sample surveys or other incomplete information. Thus the data give only a broad impression of developments, and are not strictly comparable between countries. In some cases complete categories of vegetal fuel are omitted through lack of information. For more information on a fuel type, please see the following list:
Biogas
Biogas is derived principally from the anaerobic fermentation of biomass and solid wastes and combusted to produce heat and/or power. Included in this category are landfill gas, sludge gas and other biogas such as biogas produced from the anaerobic fermentation of animal slurries and of wastes in abbatoirs, breweries and other agro-food industries.
Liquid Biomass
Liquid biomass includes the liquid biofuel that is blended into gasoline and gas/diesel oil and other liquid biofuels. It does not include the total volume of gasoline or diesel into which the biofuels are blended. Biogasoline includes bioethanol (ethanol produced from biomass and/or the biodegradable fraction of waste), biomethanol (methanol produced from biomass and/or the biodegradable fraction of waste), bioETBE (ethyl-tertio-butyl-ether produced on the basis of bioethanol; the percentage by volume of bio-ETBE that is calculated as biofuel is 47%) and bioMTBE (methyl-tertio-butyl-ether produced on the basis of biomethanol: the percentage by volume of bioMTBE that is calculated as biofuel is 36%). Biodiesels includes biodiesel (a methyl-ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality), bio-dimethylether (dimethylether produced from biomass), Fischer Tropsh (Fischer Tropsh produced from biomass), cold pressed bio-oil (oil produced from oil seed through mechanical processing only) and all other liquid biofuels which are added to, blended with or used straight as transport diesel. Other liquid biofuels includes liquid biofuels not reported in either biogasoline or biodiesels.
Industrial Waste
Industrial waste of non-renewable origin consists of solid and liquid products (e.g. tyres) combusted directly, usually in specialised plants, to produce heat and/or power. Renewable industrial waste is not included here, but with solid biomass, biogas or liquid biomass.
Municipal Waste
Municipal waste consists of products that are combusted directly to produce heat and/or power and comprises wastes produced by households, industry, hospitals and the tertiary sector that are collected by local authorities for incineration at specific installations.
Solid Biomass
Solid biomass is defined as any plant matter used directly as fuel or converted into other forms before combustion. This covers a multitude of woody materials generated by industrial process or provided directly by forestry and agriculture (firewood, wood chips, bark, sawdust, shavings, chips, sulphite lyes also known as black liquor, animal materials/wastes and other solid biomass). Charcoal produced from solid biomass is also included here. Since charcoal is a secondary product, its treatment is slightly different than that of the other primary biomass. Production of charcoal (an output in the transformation process) is offset by the inputs of primary biomass into the charcoal production process. The losses from this process are included in the row other transformation. Other supply (e.g. trade and stock changes) as well as consumption are aggregated directly with the primary biomass. In most countries, only the primary biomass is reported.