Subject: PG Elective course for Environmental Science/biological

science/chemistry/Agriculture
Course: Biomass characterization
Development Team
Course Coordinator: Dr.K. Arunkumar,Ph.D
Associate Professor& Head, Department of Plant
Science, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod-
-‐671320, Kerala, India
Content Writer: Dr.K. Arunkumar,Ph.D
Associate Professor& Head, Department of Plant
Science, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod-
-‐671320, Kerala, India
Content Reviewer: Prof.Dr.R.Rengasamy,Ph.D
Director Rtd
Centre for Advanced studies in Botany
University of Madras, Chennai--‐620 025, India

Module Title : 1. Biomass as a source of energy

Id : BSE/IBPS/1

Pre-requisites: Photosynthesis, organic matter, agricultural residues, various sources of

organic wastes.
Objectives : To study
➢ the biomass energy
➢ the principles of biomass energy conversion
➢ the biomass feedstocks
➢ biomass primary and secondary biomass production
Keywords : Organic matter, Biomass, bioenergy, agriculture residues,
biomass feedstock
Learning outcome :The learners acquire the overall knowledge about the biomass,
principles of biomass energy, types of biomass production as well as
the various biomass feedstocks.
Biomass as Source of energy
1.1 What is biomass?
Biomass represent organic matter derived from living organism (Basker et al.,2012)
including plant litter, wood, crop residues, algae, animal wastes etc. It is a source of green
energy. Biomass is probably an oldest source of energy after the sun. Since ancient times,

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people started burning wood to warm their homes during winter and cook their food and still
continuing.

1.2 About biomass and its energy

Plants (autotrophs) convert water and carbon dioxide to sugars using solar energy
through the process of photosynthesis. This sugar is used to build up the major portion of
biomass. Biomass production is measured as an increase in the mass of organisms over a
period of time. Animals (heterotrophs) depend on plants for their food hence some amount of
energy stored in plants are transferred to animals. Biomass of plants and animals accumulate
in excess of what they need to sustain life.

Man started digging coal 400 years ago and still today, fossil fuels are used as a major
source of energy. In recent years, bioenergy is attaining more importance than fossil fuels, as
fossil fuels promote greenhouse gases emission that causes global warming. According to the
World Bank, 50-60% of developing countries from Asia and 70-90% by under developing
countries like Africa depend on wood or other forest biomass for energy generation and half
the world cooks with wood.

While burning biomass ,atmospheric oxygen combines with the carbon present in the
biomass, to produce heat along with the release of carbon dioxide and water. The carbon
dioxide released to atmosphere is re-used during photosynthesis to produce new biomass with
net zero CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere. Thus, biomass is considered as a renewable
source of energy.
Some plants, like sugar cane and sugar beets, store the energy as simple sugars. Some
other plants such as corn, stores energy in the form of complex sugars, called starches.
Another type of plant matter called as cellulosic biomass is made up of complex sugars
called, polysaccharides. Biomass made up of simple or complex sugars are used for food
whereas cellulosic biomass made up of complex polysaccharides is not generally used as a
food source. This type of biomass is suitable for biofuel production and this include
agricultural and forestry residues, organic urban wastes, wastes from the food processing,
industrial wastes, and some energy crops.
The plant biomass is a complex mixture of organic materials where 75% of dry
weight constitutes carbohydrate and 25% dry weight by lignin (these proportions may vary
from plants to plants). Apart from carbohydrates and lignin, biomass also contains lipids,

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proteins and minerals. Cellulose and hemicellulose fibers, which give strength to plant are the
major source of carbohydrate. Apart from this, a portion of carbohydrates is also present in
the form of starches and simple sugars. Lignin acts as glue that holds the fibers together.
Thus, plants are lignocellulosic component mainly made up of cellulose and lignin.
Lignocellulosic biomass is processed mechanically for wood for buildings or furniture,
processed thermally or biochemically in many different ways to produce heat, electricity,
chemicals, and biofuels. Both the primary lignocellulosic resources like trees, grasses, and
stalks of food crops and all by-products like sawdust, food waste and manure compose the
biomass resource base that can be utilized for producing various types of bioenergy.
The main application of biomass includes energy production (biopower), fuel synthesis
(biofuel) and product synthesis (bioproduct). Biomass is the raw material for majority of
synthetic materials, including fabrics, medicines, chemicals, paper, cellulosic materials and
construction materials. In addition to this, biomass can be converted into liquids or gases
through variety of conversion or refining process, which can be used to produce electric
power, heat or fuel.
For the production of liquid biofuels, carbohydrate (cellulose and hemicellulose) in
the biomass should get separated from lignin and broken down into simple sugars. The
presence of lignin induces a recalcitrant property to the biomass, which limits the access to
carbohydrates and various physical, chemical and biological processes are carried out to
remove this barrier. Biomass resources that are currently used for the production of liquid
biofuels are starches from the grain of corn (maize), wheat and other grains, sugars squeezed
from the stalks of sugarcane and oils derived from soybeans and other oilseed crops.
Cellulose from biomass is broken down to glucose and then converted the sugars to ethanol,
which is a substitute for gasoline/petrol.
Ethanol made from biomass sugar reduces the need for fossil fuels like gasoline as it
can generate electricity with the same equipment or power plants that are now burning fossil
fuels. Ethanol can also be used as a power fuel cell and is easier to store and distribute than
gaseous hydrogen. Hence biomass is an important source of energy and the most important
fuel worldwide after coal, oil and natural gas.
Biomass is broadly classified into two types, i.e. natural and derived materials. Most
common types of biomass sources include agricultural crop wastes and their processing
residues, wood and its residual wastes, animal dung, residues from food processing, aquatic
plants and algae, as well as municipal solid waste.

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1.3 Primary and secondary production
1.3.1 Biomass production
Increase in the amount of organic matter or addition of organic matter in a given area
or population is called as, biomass production. In a productive environment, during growth,
living plant or animal accumulate various materials mainly carbohydrate over the period of
time. Biomass is the representation of amount this accumulated material at a given moment
while production is the rate of increase in the total biomass. In a river system, biomass may
be lost by export (such as downstream transport of biomass), or gained by import from other
systems (such as leaves falling into a stream)(Demirbas, 2001; Godard, 2013).
There are two forms of biomass production, primary and secondary production

1.3 2 Primary production

It refers to the generation of biomass by plants through photosynthesis. The excess energy
generated (beyond the energy needed for metabolic reactions) is stored and added up to the
total biomass of the plants. Primary production is estimated from the total forest cover in a
given year. Another way of biomass calculation is measuring the amount of wood produced
each year. Theoretical estimate suggests that efficiency of photosynthetic biomass production
is about 5.5%. The energy received from the sun at a given location varies with latitude and
season and the annual photosynthetic capture depends on water and nutrient availability and
the seasonal climate variations. Thus, crops actually achieve much lesser amount of biomass
than theoretical estimated value and vary according to the location and environmental
condition. For example, in the case of corn yield, the biomass production may vary to a very
large extent ranging from less than 1 tone ha-1 y-1 of dry biomass to approximately 50 tones
ha-1 y-1 of total biomass.

1.3.3 Secondary production

It is the production of biomass by the assimilation of organic material in heterotrophs.
This include, animals that feed on plants (herbivore) or other animals (carnivore) or
microorganisms that obtain nutrients by the decomposition of dead organisms. Secondary
production is estimated from the total meat produced per year.

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1.4 Source of availability
1.4.1 Natural materials - Energy crops: Some crops cultivated exclusively for energy
production known as energy crops. They are starch crops (corn, wheat and barley), sugar
crops(cane and beet), oilseed crops (soybean, sunflower, and safflower), algae, short rotation
woody crops, herbaceous woody crops and grasses.
1.4.2 Derived materials
1.4.2.1 Wastes: crop residues, agricultural processing wastes, urban organic wastes, urban
wood wastes, and mill wood wastes.
1.4.2.2 Forest products: Wood, trees, shrubs and wood residues, logging residues, sawdust,
bark, etc. from forest clearing.

1.5 Biomass feedstock

Biomass resources those are potential for energy production is called as biomass
feedstock. In other words, biomass feedstock is a biological material that is renewable and
can be used directly as a fuel or is converted to another form of fuel or energy product. Fuels
derived from biomass feedstocks are ethanol, butanol, biodiesel, and other hydrocarbon fuels.
Examples of biomass feedstocks include corn starch, sugarcane juice, crop residues such as
corn stover and sugarcane bagasse, purpose-grown grass crops, and woody plants.

Based on origin, the biomass feedstocks are of two types, primary biomass feedstock and
secondary biomass feedstock.

1.6 Primary Biomass Feedstocks

The primary biomass feedstocks are produced directly from photosynthesis i.e
primary production. All the terrestrial plants as well as algae and other aquatic plants growing
in ponds, lakes, oceans, or artificial ponds and bioreactors are considered primary biomass
feedstocks. Primary biomass feedstocks being used for bioenergy include grains and oilseed
crops used for transportation fuel production, some crop residues (orchard trimmings and nut
hulls some residues from logging and forest operations) are currently used to heat and
produce power. Only a small portion of food crops produced is used as feedstock material for
the production of bioenergy and bioproducts.In the future, it is anticipated that a larger
proportion of the residues inherently generated from food crop harvesting, as well as a larger
proportion of the residues generated from ongoing logging and forest operations, will be used

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for bioenergy. In addition to this, as the bioenergy industry develops, both woody and
herbaceous perennial crops can be planted and harvested specifically for the production of
bioenergy and bio products.
1.7 Secondary Biomass Feedstocks
Residues and byproduct recovered from food, feed, fiber, wood, and materials processing
plants are the main sources of secondary biomass feedstocks. Secondary biomass feedstock is
actually the byproducts of processed primary feedstock.These byproducts are the results of
physical or chemical breakdown of primary feedstock during processing. “Processors” may
be factories or animals. The biomass materials left behind in the field (e.g., tree tops and
limbs) during the processes such as harvesting, bundling, chipping or pressing cannot be
classified as secondary biomass feedstock. Sawdust from sawmills, black liquor (byproduct
of papermaking), and cheese whey(by-product of cheese making processes), manures,
vegetable oils (derived during the processing of oil seeds) are examples of various secondary
biomass feedstocks.
1.8 Summary
• Biomass is the organic matter derived from living organisms.
• Sun is the ultimate source of energy and biomass is probably the oldest source of
energy after the sun.
• Man depended on biomass to heat their homes and cook their food until man started
to dig out coal.
• Man greatly depended on fossil fuel for the production of energy, but as the fossil
fuels are non-renewable and emit greenhouses gases which cause global warming, in
the recent years bioenergy obtained from biomass is attaining more importance.
• The main benefits of biomass are, it is renewable, it mitigates the climate change and
the biomass resources are widely available.
• Biomass production is the increase in the amount of organic matter in an area or
population for a given period of time.
• There are two forms of biomass production. Primary production refers to the
generation of biomass energy by plants through photosynthesis and the secondary
biomass production is the assimilation of organic material and building of tissue by
heterotrophs.

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 • Biomass resources that have the potential of energy production are called as biomass
feedstock. Biomass feedstock is classified into two based on its origin. The primary
biomass feedstock is produced directly from photosynthesis. This includes all
terrestrial and aquatic plants including algae. Secondary biomass feedstock is the
byproducts obtained during the processing of primary biomass feedstock. Sawdust,
black liquor, cheese whey, manures, vegetable oils etc. are examples for secondary
biomass feedstock.

References
Baskar, C., S. Baskar and R. S. Dhillon. 2012. Biomass Conversion: The Interface of
Biotechnology, Chemistry and Materials Science, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Demirbas, A.2001. Biomass resource facilities and biomass conversion processing for fuels
and chemicals. Energy Convers Manag., 42:1357–78.
Openshaw, K. 2010. Biomass energy: employment generation and its contribution to poverty
alleviation. Biomass Bioenergy, 34:365–378
Panwar, N.L., S.C. Kaushik and S. Kothari. 2011. Role of renewable energy sources in
environmental protection: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev., 15:1513–1524
Nansaior, A., A. Patanothai, A.T. Rambo and S. Simaraks. 2013. The sustainability of
biomass energy acquisition by households in urbanizing communities in Northeast
Thailand. Biomass Bioenergy, 52:113–121
McKendry, P. 2002. Energy production from biomass (part 2): conversion technologies.
Bioresour. Technol., 83:47–54
http://www.rampalberta.org/river/ecology/life+in+aquatic+ecosystems/biomass+and+product
ion.aspx.
https://www.our-energy.com/benefits_of_biomass.html
http://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/biomass/biomass.html.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/renewable_energy/bio_energy_biomass_production.htm).
Multiple choice questions
1. The term biomass is related to
A. Science B. Historical C. Industry D. Biology
2. Biomass energy source
A. Plant B. Animals C. Plant and animals D. Plant, animals and their wastes

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 3. Cultivation of vegetal species growing rapidly, are generally used in the production of
bio-fuels called
A. Agriculture C. Energy culture
B. Biomass culture D. Bioenergy production
4. Solid biomass in a compressed forms is called
A. Briquette B. Organic matter C. Charcoal D. Feedstock.
5. Which one of the following is the greenhouse gas
A. CO B. CO2 C. N D. H2
6. Thermal degradation of biomass by heat in the absence of oxygen is called.
A. Gasification B. Pyrolysis C. Congeneration D. Combustion
7. Absorption of organic matter as body tissues by organisms is called.
A. Secondary biomass production C. Biomass production
B. Feedstocks D. Primary biomass production
8. Biomass source obtained crops used for food, feed, fiber and fuelwood.
A. Primary Feedstocks C. Tertiary feedstocks
B. Secondary Feedstocks D. Processed feedstocks
9. Processed biomass resource obtained from the grains and oilseed crops used for
transportation fuel are
A. Primary biomass products C. Secondary biomass products
B. Tertiary biomass products D. Waste biomass products
10. Which one of the following statements is not correct related to biomass energy
A. Biomass has more energy than a similar volume of fossil fuels
B. Biomass is easily available and can be grown with relative ease in all parts of the
world.
C. When plant and animal wastes are used as fuel, they cannot be added to the soil as
fertilizer. Soil without fertilizer is depleted of nutrients and produce fewer crops.
D. Biomass is an abundant, secure, environmental friendly, and renewable source of
energy
Short answer questions
1. Define biomass.
2. What is renewable energy? List the few renewable energy sources.
3. Briefly explain about the various categories of biomass resources.
4. What is primary and secondary biomass production.

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 5. Explain the advantages of biomass source of energy
Long answer questions
1. Discuss the primary and secondary biomass productions.
2. Discuss the various biomass feedstocks sources for bioenergy.
Assignment topic
Make a visit around your hometown and take stock of various sources of biomass
feedstocks. Based on the survey, write a comprehensive account on the types of biomass
feedstocks available for bioenergy production.