Introduction

Biomass:-
All organic matter generated through photosynthesis and other
biological processes. The total biomass produced annually by land and
aquatic plants is equivalent to energy content of (2.6-3.5)x1021 J, which is
the ten times the world’s present consumption of energy.
Biomass is being used as a source of primary energy all over the
world since ancient times. The biomass is a principal source of energy
in the rural sector of India. India has abundant supply of several types of
crop residues.
The largest potential can be found in energy from biomass is 17000
mw and over 273mt of crop residues are generated annually through
agriculture.
India has approximately 141 million ha. Of arable land and
agricultural output is around 800 mT, which in itself generates 750MT of
waste. about which 300MT could be used for biomass generation.
The biomass conversion technologies mainly include biochemical,
chemical, thermal and thermo chemical processes.
 Major biomass recourses in India
Biomass Availability Coal equivalent
(tonnes/year) (tonnes/year)
Agricultural residues
Rice straw 90.0 58.4
Rice husk 19.9 15.7
Jute sticks 2.5 2.3
Wheat straw 50.5 37.5
Cotton stalks - -
Linters and hulls 13.0 11.0
Agro- industrial by-products
Bagasse 28..1 22.4
Molasses 2.1 0.8
Coconut husk and shell 1.0 1.1
Oilseed cakes 6.7 0.9
Sawdust 2.0 3.4
Cattle-dung (wet) 1.335.0 128.0
Forest products/residues
Mahua flower 1.0 0.4
Leaves, tops, etc. 3.3 3.0
Total 1.555.1 284.9
Biomass conversion
 Thermo chemical Conversion

a) Direct Combustion
eg. wood waste and bagasses.
b) Pyrolysis :- Heating the biomass with limited oxygen to produce
low heating value or reacting it with steam and oxygen at high
pressure and temperature to produce medium heating value gas.
c) Liquefaction:- Fuel getting from gasification process used in
liquefaction by converting it to methanol or ethanol.

 Biochemical conversion
a) Anaerobic digestion: microbial digestion of biomass.
b)Alcoholic Fermentation:- The breakdown of complex molecules
in organic compound under the influence of a ferment such as
yeast, bacteria, enzymes etc.
 Biochemical Conversion:
It takes place in two forms:

Anaerobic digestion : It involves the microbial digestion

of biomass. The process takes place at low temperature
upto 65oc and requires a moisture content of at least
80%. It generates a gas consisting mostly of Carbon-di-
oxide(CO2) and methane (CH4).

Biogas is produced by the bacterial decomposition of

wet sewage sludge, animal dung or green plants in
absense of oxygen . The whole process of digestion
takes place in air tight tank called digester.
Anaerobic digestion consist of three phase:
 Enzymatic Hydrolysis
 Acid Formation
 Methane Formation
 Continue…
 Enzymatic Hydrolysis : In such process the fats,
starches and proteins contained in cellulosic biomass
are broken down into simple compounds.

 Acid Formation : Here the acid formers (micro-

organism of anaerobic group) hydrolyse and ferment
& break the complex organic compounds into acetic
acid and volatile solids.

 Methane Formation : Here the organic acids obtained

are then converted into CH4 & CO2 by the bacteria
(anaerobes). These are also called methane
fermentors.
 Continue…
 Fermentation :
It is the breakdown of complex molecules in
organic compound under the influence of a ferment
such as yeast, bacteria, enzymes, etc. It is widely
used technology for conversion of grains and sugar
crops into ethanol.
Ethanol is produced by the fermentation of
sugar solution by natural yeast after about 30 hrs
fermentation of brew.
Properties of biomass
Physical and chemical properties of biomass are most vital parameters which
decide consistent and efficient operation.
 Energy density of biomass
• It depends upon it’s mass density as well as it’s composition, as
indicated by elementary analysis.
• The biomass materials having the same elementary composition
and mass density have almost the calorific value, but their efficiency
may not be same.
 Moisture content of biomass
• The presence of moisture is essential for gasification reaction, but when it is
present in excess, it has detrimental effect on the performance of the
gasifier.
• Moisture content about 15% by weight is desirable for trouble free and
economical operation.
• M. C not only acts as a heat sink and lower the combustion efficiency but also
affects the economics of fuel utilization.
 Volatile matter in biomass
• Released when biomass is heated from 100 to 500oc consist of water
vapor, tars, pyrolysis oils and gases.
• Most of the volatile matter should best be consumed in the process of
gasification .
 Fixed carbon content
• The fixed carbon content of the biomass is responsible for
replenishing the charcoal in gasification process.
 Ash content of biomass
• Biomass fuels vary largely according to the species, locality and soil.
• Biomass residues normally have much lower ash content.
• Silica and few other insoluble inorganic compound act as heat
insulators.
Ethanol
• Ethanol (C2H5OH) is produced naturally
by certain micro organisms from sugar
under acidic conditions, having pH 4 to 5.
• Ethanol has greater potential for use as
an industrial solvent and chemical than as a
liquid fuel.
• It is used in many industries such as
printing ink, Varnishes, Cosmetics,
Pharmaceuticals and some food industries
as solvent in varying amounts.
Ethanol Production
1. Chemical synthesis
2. Fermentation method

1. Chemical synthesis
• The primary synthetic route is the catalytic
hydrolysis of ethylene derived from petroleum.
CH2=CH2 + H2O ―› CH3CH2OH
• Other raw materials used are Natural gas, Coal,
Oil shales and Tar sands etc.
• The annual production of ethanol by this method
is from 40 M l to 450 M l.
2. Fermentation method
Raw materials-
i) Sugar containing material
ii) Carbohydrates (Starch)
iii) Lignocellulic material
iv) Urban and industrial wastes

• Material containing sugar requires the least

costly preparation, as the sugars are already
available in degradable form.
• Spoiled and low quality starches, which are
not suitable for food or animal feed, can be
effectively used for production of alcohol.

• The Lignocellulose material and urban and

industrial waste are also good raw materials,
but they requires various processes and
pretreatments which has some technological
difficulties.
 Pre treatment
The fibre component of cellulosic biomass can
be hydrolised, but some form of pretreatments
are necessary to obtain high yield of
monosaccharides.
Classification-
 Physical
 Chemical
 Biological
 Combination
Conversion Process
1. Acid Hydrolysis
2. Enzymic conversion method
Acid hydrolysis can be carried out with dilute or
concentrated acids.

The basic hydrolysis process consists of –

1. Feed stock preparation
2. Pre hydrolysis
3. Hydrolysis of cellulose
4. Neutralization and clean up
5. Fermentation of hexose sugars to ethanol
6. Distillation
 Enzymatic conversion
 This method is not commercially used.

 The basic enzymatic process consists of

1. Pretreatment of feed stock
2. Production and recovery of cellulose enzyme
3. Recovery of fermentable sugar
4. Fermentation of sugar syrup
5. Recovery of product and processing of by
products and wastes.
 Fermentation Process
 The pretreated raw material is fermented by
addtion of micro organisms. (Saccharomyces
Cerevisiae)

 The conversion of cellulose to ethanol is given by,

(C6H10O5)n + nH2O ―› n C6H12O6

C6H12O6 ―› 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2

Raw material:As per suitability

1)Biomass containing sugar :

sugar cane, sugar beet, molasses,sorghum etc

2)Biomass containing starch:

cereals eg.barley,rye,corn; tuberous crops eg.potato,cassava
root etc.

3)Biomass containing lignocellulose:

agricultural waste such as rice husk, rice straw,
bagasse, corn stover, forest waste such as wood, grasses,animal
waste,arban waste etc.
 Overall view of alcohol
production:
 Pretreatment : Conversion of raw material
to fermentable sugar (acid or enzyme
hydrolysis)
 Fermentation: Utilization of sugar by yeast &
production of alcohol
 Distillation: Concentrated to 100% alcohol
 Byproduct formation: Spent mash
removed & processed
Pretreatment Fermentation

Grinding Yeast
Fermentable sugar Enzymes
Sterilization
Cooking Cooling
Hydrolysis

Low
alcohol
beer

Byproduct
Concentration

Centrifuge Distillation
Evaporation Alcohol
Dehydration
World Ethanol production by 2004:
Country Billion liters
Brazil 18.1
United states 16.1
China 4.4
India 2.1
Russia 0.9
South Africa 0.5
Soudi Arabia 0.4
Thailand 0.4
Biomass gasification
 Biomass gasification means incomplete
combustion of biomass resulting in
production of combustible gases consisting
of Carbon monoxide (CO), Hydrogen (H2)
and traces of Methane (CH4). This mixture
is called producer gas.
Theory of Gasification:

Combustible Co,H2,

Air Biomass Traces ofCH4,

material
Non useful material

like tar & dust

 Composition of Gas obtained
from wood gasification
 Co 18 – 22 %
 H2 13 – 19 %
 CH4 1- 5 %
 Heavier HC 0.2 – 0.4%
 C02 9 – 12%
 N2 45-55%
 Water vapour 45 %
 Types Of Gasifiers:
 Updraught or counter current gasifier

 Downdraught or co-current gasifiers

 Cross-draught gasifier

 Fluidized bed gasifier

Up draft gasifier

An up draft gasifier is characterised by a counter

current flow of fuel and air or gas in the reactor. The
producer gas exits from the top of the gasifier.

Reaction zones in an up draft gasifier

Down draft gasifier:

Down draft gasifiers are characterized by co-current flow of air or gas

and the fuel. Fuel and air or gas move in the same direction.

Reaction zones in an down draft gasifier

 Down draft gasifier with throat:

Gasifier has narrow section below air entrance point in the reactor,
which is called throat. Due to decrease in the cross-sectional area at
the throat, air velocity increases resulting high and better temperature
distribution in the oxidation zone

Down draft gasifier without throat:

Down draft gasifier with throat is not suitable for gasification of agro-
residues like paddy husk, groundnut shell etc. A without throat down draft
gasifier was conceived for the gasification paddy husk, groundnut shell.
Cross draft gasifier:

This gasifier can operate with wide variety of fuels compared to an up

draft or a down draft gasifier. High gas exit temperature, higher gas
velocity at the gas exit and poor carbon dioxide reduction are certain
characteristics of this type of gasifier. This type of gasifier has been used
for gasification of coal.

Reaction zones in a cross draft gasifier

Fluidized bed gasifier
Fluidized bed gasifier is a homogeneous reactor bed of
some inert sand material. The fuel is introduced in the inert bed
material and air at the bottom of the bed in the reactor. This gasifier is
characterised by high gas exit temperature, very high solid particulate
matter in the gas and relatively low efficiency. The gasifier can operate
with low bulk density materials such as agro-residues leaves etc

Fluidized bed gasifier

 ELECTRIC POWER
GENERATION

MOTIVE POWER
GASIFIER GENERATION
MOTIVE

COOLER CLEANER ENGINES WATER PUMPING

POWER
GAS

GRINDING

OTHER
MECHANICAL
DRIVE

FIG :- SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF POWER PRODUCTION

 1. Updraft - Small pressure drop
- good thermal efficiency
- little tendency towards slag formation

2. Downdraft - Flexible adaptation of gas production to

load
- low sensitivity to charcoal dust and tar content of
fuel

3. Crossdraft - Short design height

- very fast response time to load
- flexible gas production