Bioenergy and Biofuels

CH303
Lecture 18
IIT Dharwad
 Broadly divided into three types:

 1) Biofuels (Bioethanol, biobutanol, biodiesel etc.)-Liquid fuel

mainly for transportation and manufacturing

 2) Biomass (solid biological material like wood for heating and

electricity generation)

 3) Biogas (gas containing methane produced from anaerobic

digestion of biological waste matter)-for heat and electricity
 Solid material from biological (mainly plant) sources

 Charcoal is an old form of biomass

 Biomass is sustainable waste products and material from novel

feedstocks such as willow, poplar, miscanthus, other grasses etc.

 Biomass is mainly used for electricity generation through

biomass-fired generators
 Willows are deciduous trees and shrubs.

 It is a potential biomass crop due to:

 1) Fast growth and coppicing ability

 2) Low requirement for N2 fertilizer

 3) Ability to grow on marginal lands

 4) Ease of propagation and cultivation

 5) 2nd generation bioenergy crop with

 genetic manipulation possibility

 6) Winter harvesting ( fits well with other

farm operations and less pollution on burning due to less
Sulfur and N2 contents)
 Also used for paper, veneer and lumbar

 Mainly grows in temperate habitats

 Mainly good for biomass due to:
 1) High growth rate
 2) Amenability to short rotation coppicing
 3) Low N2 demand
 4) Easy propagation from stem pieces
 5) Wide genetic diversity for breeding

 Widely used in UK, US, Italy, Europe, South

 America, Asia
Perennial grass native to subtropical,
Tropical and temperate regions in Asia

 Rapid growth, low mineral content and high

yield of biomass
 Biomass is dried and pelleted after harvest
 Source of cellulose for bioethanol production
 Perennial grasses native to great plains of North America
(Rocky mountains and Mississippi river)

 Also called native American prairie grasses

 Grows rapidly in spring from an over-wintering rhizome

 And can reach up to 3m high
 Grow on marginal lands with low inputs of fertilizer, n2 etc.
 Also called giant cane or wild cane is a tall perennial cane reed that grows
in damp soils near water sources.

 Extends from Mediterranean region to India and Nepal as well as USA and
Caribbeans

 Canary grass grows along the margins of lakes from Europe to Asia, Africa
and north America

 Forms a thick, underground rhizome with low N2 requirement

Conversion technologies from biomass to biofuels

• Thermal

• Thermochemical

• Biochemical
 Thermal conversion
• Direct burning is most obvious method for generating heat energy from biomass

• But thermal combustion could be done to make derivatives that have superior combustion
characteristics

• It involves high temperatures in the complete absence of O2 (pyrolysis) or in the limited

presence of O2 resulting in partial oxidation (gasification)

• Gases produced are trapped and condensed to form bio-oil, a mixture of hydrocarbons that
can be used as a heating oil or fractionated to make petrol or diesel
 Gasification
• Requires temperatures around 800˚C in presence of limited O2

• The biomass initially forms charcoal and a mixture of CO2 and H2O vapour

• CO2 and H2O vapour are reduced by the charcoal to CO and H2

• Gasification with air produces a low value heating gas, because N2 from air reduces its
calorific value

• But gasification with O2 or steam produces a medium value heating gas and syngas
(mixture of CO, H2, CO2 and CH4 in 40, 40, 17 and 3% respectively)

• Syngas can be used as a feedstock for the manufacture of methanol, ammonia, synthetic
diesel or synthetic natural gas (SNG)
Thermal
Thermochemical
• The Fischer–Tropsch process is a collection of chemical
reactions that converts a mixture of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen or water gas into liquid hydrocarbons.
These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts,
typically at temperatures of 150–300 °C (302–572 °F) and
pressures of one to several tens of atmospheres.
(2n + 1) H2 + n CO → CnH2n+2 + n H2O
Biochemical
Fermentation