Recent studies have cast doubt on biomass’ carbon neutrality.

But new, sophisticated calculations are casting doubts on the merits of biomass-produced power. Some researchers have concluded that, when it comes to carbon dioxide, biomass could be more polluting — at least in the short term — than coal, and much worse than natural gas. Burning biomass is dirtier at the outset, they argue, and recouping that higher initial release of carbon could take years or even decades of forest growth.

“It’s hard to imagine a more polluting and less efficient alternative source of energy than biomass,” said Richard Wiles, former co-founder of Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

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Colby College in Waterville, Maine, will soon use biomass for heat, hot water, cooking, and electricity.

Designed to reduce the college’s carbon emissions, the plant will burn about 22,000 tons of local wood chips and forest waste such as bark and tree tops annually, replacing 90 percent of the 1.1 million gallons of heating oil it currently uses per year, according to college spokeswoman Ruth Jacobs. The wood would come from forest operations located within 50 miles of Colby.

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The Charter Street plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is being converted to burn biomass rather than coal.

“This is in our state’s interest,” the governor said during a ceremony Monday marking the start of the project. “Sixteen billion dollars a year (for fuel, mostly coal) leaves our state. If we just kept 25 percent of that ‘spend’ here in Wisconsin, it’s $4 billion additional a year that is going to create jobs here in this state.”

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Fairbanks, Alaska businessman, Bernie Karl, wants to convert paper and cardboard into energy in a 500 kilowatt biomass plant.

Karl said the experimental biomass power plant is being started with the help of a $2 million energy grant from the state. He said an additional $3 million of his own money is part of the investment, along with $750,000 from United Technologies, a company that develops high-tech products.

Karl said the generator can be expanded to as much as 2.5 megawatts if there’s a large enough waste supply to power it. The electricity will be sold to Golden Valley Electric Association to feed the Interior’s power grid.

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