Biomass energy source

o Biomass is a renewable energy source that is

derived from living or recently living organisms.
o It includes dead trees, tree branches, rotting
garbage, agricultural and human wastes like
sugarcane, grasses and wood chips.
 Composition of Biomass

• Biomass fuel is the stored solar energy in the form of

chemical energy of its constituents, as a result of
photosynthetic reaction.
 THERMOCHEMICAL CONVERSION OF BIOMASS
• In thermochemical conversion, the entire biomass is
converted into gases, which are then synthesized into the
desired chemicals or used directly as energy.
• Within thermo-chemical conversion four process options
are available:
.Combustion
.Pyrolysis
.Gasification
.Liquefaction/
Hydrothermal
 1. Combustion of biomass
• Combustion involves high-temperature conversion of
biomass in excess air into carbon dioxide and steam.
• Chemically, combustion is an exothermic reaction between
excess oxygen and the hydrocarbon in biomass.
• It is a thermal conversion of organic matter with an oxidant
(normally oxygen) to produce primarily carbon dioxide and
water.
What is needed for combustion to take place?
. Fuel
. Heat
. Oxygen
• For complete oxidation, the oxidant is in stoichiometric
excess.
• Combustion is used to convert the chemical energy stored
in biomass into:
. Heat
. Mechanical power, or
. Electricity using various items of process equipment,
e.g. stoves, furnaces, boilers, steam turbines, turbo-
generators, etc.
• Combustion is feasible only for biomass with a moisture
content <50%,unless the biomass is pre-dried.
 2. Pyrolysis of biomass: Definition
• “Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of biomass
into a range of useful products, either in the total absence
of oxidizing agents or with a limited supply that does not
permit gasification to an appreciable extent”.
• During pyrolysis, large complex hydrocarbon molecules
of biomass break down into relatively smaller and simpler
molecules of:
 . Solid (mostly char or carbon)
. Liquid (tars, heavier hydrocarbons, and water)
. Gas (CO2, H2O, CO, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C6H6, etc.)
• The relative amounts of these products depend on several
factors including the heating rate and the final
temperature reached by the biomass.
o Most pyrolysis reactors can be classified as units that produce heat and biochar
(using slow pyrolysis) or units that produce biochar and bio-oils (using fast
pyrolysis),
• As can be seen from the formula, the content of C, H
and S contributes positively to GCV, while the content
of N, O and ash contributes negatively to GCV.
Why Heating value of Biomass is low?
• The heating properties of different fuels depend on the
proportions of the elements they contain.
• Carbon and hydrogen increase the heating value, where
as a high share of oxygen in wood decreases it.
• Compared to many other fuels, wood has a fairly low
carbon content (some 50% of dry weight) and high
oxygen content (some 40%), which leads to a fairly low
heating value per dry weight.
Why wood burns with long flames?
o The combustibles of solid fuels can be shared into two
groups: volatile matters and components combusting as
solid carbon.
o The share of volatile matters in wood is typically high,
whereas the share of solid carbon is low.
o Eighty percent of wood energy actually originates from the
combustion of volatile matters or gases and twenty percent
from the combustion of solid carbon (glowing embers).
o Due to the large amounts of volatile matters, wood burns
with long flames and therefore needs a lot of space for
combusting
1. A power plant that has a capacity of 5MW of electricity
is operated by biomass gasification. The efficiency of
this power plant is 25% and it has 7200 working hours
per annual. According to this;
a. Determine the annual quantity of biomass required (by
taking the calorific value of biomass, CV=16MJ/kg).
Bioethanol
Production schemes for bioethanol
2. Conversion of starch to sugar and then sugar to ethanol
• Among potential starch feed stocks for ethanol production,
corn is used most widely. Other grains, such as wheat and
barley, also are used as feed stocks for ethanol production
o Two methods for Ethanol produced
 The wet milling process
 The dry milling process.
The main difference between the two processes is that:-
• In the dry milling process the whole corn is ground and fed
to the fermenter for ethanol fermentation,
Other than ethanol
• distillers dried grain with soluble (DDGS) - animal feed

• Whereas in the wet milling process the corn components

(starch, protein, germ and fiber) are fractionated first and
then only the starch fraction is used in ethanol fermentation.
Biofuels vs. Food Debate

Did corn prices drive

up food Price?
Are affluent car owners driving up the
price of food to the poor?
 3. Lignocelulosics Ethanol production
Why Cellulosic Ethanol?
o It can solve this food vs. fuel controversy
- Its feedstock (switchgrass, poplar) is not edible
- It can grow on marginal lands. It will not divert
land from food production to its production
o It has a wide range of feedstock
- It can replace fossil fuel in significant scale. l
o It has higher yield/acre without land limit
- It can be used as a whole unlike crop ethanol
- It has better GHG reduction potential
 Biodiesel

What is Biodiesel?
o Biodiesel is the fuel oil extracted from the vegetable oils,
animal fats, and recycled greases via transesterification
reaction.
o A fuel comprised of mono-alkyl-ester of long chain fatty
acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fat.
Biodiesel production
 Triglyceride Sources
o Rendered animal fats: beef tallow, lard
o Vegetable oils: soybean, canola, palm, rapeseed etc.
o Chicken, pork fat
o Rendered greases: yellow grease (= waste cooking oil)

Biodiesel Application/Usage
 BIOGAS

INTRODUCTION
Biogas is a clean environment friendly fuel that can be
obtained by anaerobic digestion of animal residues and
domestic and farm wastes.
 Methane is a clean environment friendly energy one of the
constituent of biogas which has a great potential to be an
alternative fuel.
Average calorific value of biogas is 20 MJ/m3 (4713
kcal/m3).
Biogas is generated when bacteria degrade biological
material in the absence of oxygen, in a process known as
anaerobic digestion.
The heating value of biogas is about 60% of natural gas and
about 25% of propane.
 Composition of Biogas

Carbon dioxide
(CO2): 25-55%
Other gases: 2-
7%
Methane (CH4): N2 : 0 -5%
40-70%
H2: 0-1%,
H2S: 0-3%

Biogas
 Production of bio-digestion

Carbohydrates Sugars Carbonic

Acids And
Alcohols
Hydrogen,
Methane
Acetic Acid
Fats Fatty Acids And
And
Carbon
Hydrogen, Carbon
dioxide
carbon dioxide
dioxide and
Proteins Amino Acids
Ammonia

Hydrolysis Acidogenesis Acetogenesis Methanogenesis

 Hydrolysis
• Biomass is made up of large organic polymers

• Complex polymers hydrolyzed to monomers

• complex organic molecules → simple sugars,
amino acids, and fatty acids.
• Done by hydrolytic fermentative bacteria
 Factors affecting methane formation.
1. pH
– 6-8 Acidic medium lowers methane formation.
2. Temperature
– Fluctuation ↓ methane formation inhibit growth of methanogens. 30-40oC
3. Nitrogen concentration
– ↑ N2 - ↓ growth of bacteria - ↓ CH4

4. C:N ratio
– Micro organisms in a biogas plant needs both N
nitrogen and C carbon. Research has shown that the methanogenic bacteria
work best with a C/N ratio 30:1.
5. Creation of anaerobic conditions
– CH4 production take place in strictly anaerobic condition.
FIXED DOME TYPE BIOGAS PLANT
Chang Mai