Is it possible bioenergy replace coal in power plants?

Nowadays, the cleanest and free which operately works in earth are wind and solar power.
When the sun goes down and the wind dies, coal is still the workhorse for generating
baseload power. But coal is killing us by warming the planet, acidifying our lakes and oceans
and sprinkling mercury over the landscape. Geothermal can do part of the job but it will take
decades to drill enough wells. Beside that, scientist found that bioenergy is considerable as
new replacement of coal in power plants due to its advantage.

By its definition , Bioenergy is one of the largest renewable energy source today which
provides ten percent of world primary energy supply. That means bioenergy plays a crucial
role in many developing countries, where it provides basic energy for cooking and space
heating, Theoritically , Energy derived from the conversion of biomass where biomass may
be used directly as fuel, or processed into liquids and gases is called as Bioenergy.

Bioenergy power generation and forecast by region

IEA, (2015), Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report 2015, OECD/IEA, Paris.

One quick fix that is finally catching on is converting existing coal plants to biomass. Fuel
and maintenance costs are actually reduced and expensive pollution control upgrades can
often be avoided because biomass contains very little sulphur or mercury. Often the biomass
can be grown locally, providing good local jobs and keeping the ratepayers dollars in the
community. Biomass burning is carbon neutral because the CO2 emitted by one crop is taken
back by the next.
The new process, developed over the past seven years, enables biomass fuel to be utilised in
traditional coal-fired power plants as a direct replacement for coal without requiring plant
operators to invest in expensive furnace, handling, and storage modifications.

The environmentally-friendly process effectively cleanses the raw biomass material by

removing salts, minerals, and other contaminants that harm the atmosphere and damage
power plant furnaces. The biomass is then converted into a high-energy feedstock, without
the low and medium volatiles resident in some other biomass fuels.

The technology is able to process any plant- or wood-based raw biomass material, as well as
previously unusable or economically unviable waste timber, contaminated or redundant
industrial residues, and even chemically-treated wood. The finished fuel, which can be
delivered in a range of different compacted formats (pellets, granules, briquettes, or bales),
contains similar thermal and friability characteristics to coal, making it compatible with
existing coal-fired power stations. Moreover, it can be handled and processed using the same
equipment currently used to handle and prepare coal.
Depending on the type of plant, biomass could make levelized-cost-of-energy improvements
of up to 48 percent by 2025, making it close to competitive with coal.