ABSTRACT
The energy gained through photosynthesis in chloroplasts from water with the release of oxygen is stored as the “ATP” material, which in turn is used to make the organic material from the CO2 in the air—the whole is called the Calvin cycle. Solar energy in the form of the Sun’s radiation is converted by photosynthesis in Earth’s plants to some 3,000 EJ every year. This big figure simply means that the solar energy captured annually as biomass tops the world’s energy consumption of by a factor of 10. Bio-energy in the form of biomass in various versions is an energy giant, but just 1.4% of the total produced is so far employed as actual bio-energy, in the form of wood pellets, fuel liquids and biogas or simply as traditional fuel wood in the villages of the poor. The enormous flow of liquid effluents, in particular from husbandry, should better be recycled with the extraction of the energy contained in them.
