Biomass

• The material of plants and animals, including their wastes and residues, is
called biomass.
• It is organic, carbon-based, material that reacts with oxygen in combustion
and natural metabolic processes to release heat. Such heat, especially if at
temperatures>400 C, may be used to generate work and electricity.
• The initial material may be transformed by chemical and biological
processes to produce biofuels, i.e. biomass processed into a more
convenient form, particularly liquid fuels for transport.
– Examples of biofuels include methane gas, liquid ethanol, methyl esters, oils and
solid charcoal (Charcoal is a light black residue consisting of carbon, and any
remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from
animal and vegetation substances. )
• The term bio-energy is sometimes used to cover biomass and biofuels
together.
• The domestic use of biofuel as wood and plant residues for cooking is of
prime importance for about 50% of the world’s population.
• The industrial use of biomass energy is currently comparatively small for
most countries, except in a few sugarcane-producing countries where crop
residues (bagasse) burnt for process heat.
 Advantages of Biomass Energy
• No Harmful Emissions :The carbon in biomass is obtained from CO2 in the
atmosphere via photosynthesis, and not from fossil sources. When biomass is
burnt or digested, the emitted CO2 is recycled into the atmosphere, so not adding
to atmospheric. Energy from biomass is therefore ‘carbon neutral’.
• Abundant and Renewable : Biomass products are abundant and renewable. Since
they come from living sources, and life is cyclical, these products potentially never
run out, so as long as there is something living on earth and there is someone
there to turn that living things components and waste products into energy.
• Reduce Dependency on Fossil Fuels : It has developed as an alternate source of
fuel for many homeowners and have helped them to reduce their dependency on
fossil fuels.
• Reduce Landfills : It can take waste that is harmful to the environment and turn it
into something useful. For instance, waste at least partially, be burned to create
useable biomass energy.
• Can be Used to Create Different Products :Ethanol and similar fuels can be made
from corn and other crops.
 Disadvantages of Biomass Energy
• High initial cost: Cost of construction of biogas plant is high. Continuous supply of biomass is
required to generate biomass energy. The boilers need more space as they're normally larger than
gas or oil boilers. They also require a lot of space to store the fuel, such as a hopper or wood
store.
Inefficient as Compared to Fossil Fuels : the relative inefficiency of biomass energy. Ethanol, as a
biodiesel is terribly inefficient when compared to gasoline, and it often has to be mixed with some
gasoline to make it work properly anyway. On top of that, ethanol is harmful to combustion
engines over long term use.
• Harmful to Environment : using animal and human waste to power engines may save on carbon
dioxide emissions, but it increases methane gases, which are also harmful to the Earth’s— ozone
layer. And speaking of using waste products, there is the smell to consider. While it is not
physically harmful, it is definitely unpleasant, and it can attract unwanted pests (rats, flies) and
spread bacteria and infection.
• Consume More Fuel : Finally, using trees and tree products to power machines is inefficient as
well. Not only does it take a lot more fuel to do the same job as using conventional fuels, but it
also creates environmental problems of its own. To collect enough wood to power a nation full of
vehicles or even a power plant, companies would have to clear considerable forest area. This
results in major topological changes and destroys the homes of countless animals and plants.
• Require More Land : Combustion of biomass products require some land where they can easily be
burnt. Since, it produces gases like methane in atmosphere; therefore it can be produced in those
areas which are quite far from residential homes.
• Fuel needs to be kept dry if it's to burn cleanly and efficiently.
• Research is needed to reduce the cost of production of Biomass based fuels.
SOURCES OF BIOMASS
 What Is a Bio-refinery?

• A bio-refinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and

equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass. The bio-
refinery concept is similar to today's petroleum refineries, which produce
multiple fuels and products from petroleum. Industrial bio-refineries have
been identified as the most promising route to the creation of a new
domestic bio-based industry.
• A bio refinery might, for example, produce one or several low-volume, but
high-value, chemical products and a low-value, but high-volume liquid
transportation fuel, while generating electricity and process heat.
• The high-value products enhance profitability, the high-volume fuel helps
meet national energy needs, and the power production reduces costs and
avoids greenhouse-gas emissions.
• Sugar Platform Biorefineries would likely break biomass down into different
types of component for fermentation (Fermentation is a metabolic process
that converts sugar to acids, gases and/or alcohol) or other biological
processing into various fuels and chemicals.
• Thermochemical biorefineries would likely convert biomass to synthesis gas
(hydrogen and carbon monoxide) or pyrolysis oil, the various components
of which could be directly used as fuel or converted to other fuels and
chemicals.
• The "sugar platform" is based on biochemical conversion processes and focuses on
the fermentation of sugars extracted from biomass feedstock.
• (Fermentation is a process that converts sugar to acids, gases and/or alcohol)
• The "syngas platform" is based on thermochemical conversion processes and
focuses on the gasification of biomass feedstock and by-products from conversion
processes.
Bioenergy Conversion
 Thermochemical Platform
 Combustion - direct combustion of biomass is the most
common way of converting biomass to energy - both heat
and electricity. Compared to the gasification and pyrolysis
it is the simplest and most developed.
 Gasification - gasification is a high-temperature (1200-
1400 Degree Celsius)thermo-chemical conversion process
but the process is used for production of gas, instead of
heat.
 Pyrolysis - thermal decomposition occurring in the
absence of oxygen. We use pyrolysis to produce a liquid
fuel, bio-oil or pyrolysis oil.
 Direct combustion for heat
• Domestic cooking and heating
– A significant proportion of the world’s population depends on fuel-wood or other
biomass for cooking, heating and other domestic uses. Average daily consumption of
fuel is about 0.5–1 kg of dry biomass per person.
– widespread use of inefficient cooking methods, the most common of which is still an
open fire.
– only about small amount of the heat that could be released by complete combustion
of the wood reaches the interior of the cooking pot. The rest is lost by incomplete
combustion of the wood, by wind and light breezes carrying heat away from the fire,
and by radiation losses, etc. resulting from the mismatch of fire and pot size.
• Process heat and electricity
– Steam process heat is commonly obtained for factories by burning wood or other
biomass residues in boilers. It is physically sensible to use the steam first to generate
electricity before the heat degrades to a lower useful temperature. The efficiency of
electricity generation from the biomass may be only about 20–25% due to low
temperature combustion, so 75–80% of the energy remains as process heat and a
useful final temperature is maintained.
– Frequently the optimum operation of such processes treats electricity as a by-
product of process heat generation, with excess electricity being sold to the local
electricity supply agency, as in modern sugarcane mills.
Biomass Direct Combustion
Composition of MSW
 Gasification
• Biomass heated with no oxygen
– When biomass is heated with no oxygen or only about one-third the oxygen needed for efficient combustion (amount of
oxygen and other conditions determine if biomass gasifies or pyrolyzes)

• Gasifies to mixture of CO and H2

– it gasifies to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen—synthesis gas or syngas.

• Syngas therefore inherently burns more efficiently and cleanly than the solid
biomass from which it was made. Biomass gasification can thus improve the
efficiency of large-scale biomass power facilities such as those for forest
industry residues and specialized facilities such as black alcohol recovery
boilers of the pulp and paper industry—both major sources of biomass power.
• Like natural gas, syngas can also be burned in gas turbines, a more efficient
electrical generation technology than steam boilers to which solid biomass
and fossil fuels are limited.
• Can easily be converted to other fuels, chemicals, and valuable materials
– Just as syngas mixes more willingly with oxygen for combustion, it also mixes more
willingly with chemical catalysts than solid fuels do, greatly enhancing its ability to be
converted to other valuable fuels, chemicals and materials.
– The Fischer-Tropsch process converts syngas to liquid fuels needed for transportation.
– The water-gas shift process converts syngas to more concentrated hydrogen for fuel
• The gasification of biomass takes place in four stages:
– Drying: water vapour is driven off the biomass.
– Pyrolysis: as the temperature increases the dry biomass decomposes into organic
vapors, gases, carbon (char) .
– Reduction: water vapor reacts with carbon, producing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and
methane. Carbon dioxide reacts with carbon to produce more carbon monoxide.
– Combustion: some of the carbon burn with oxygen from air to give heat and carbon
dioxide. This heat enables the other stages of the gasification process to take place.
 Biomass Gasifier`
• 200 tons of wood chips daily
• Forest thinning, discarded wood
• Converted to gas at ~1850 ºF
• Combined cycle gas turbine
• 8MW power output

McNeil Generating Station

biomass gasifier – 8MW

in Burlington
 Pyrolysis
• Pyrolysis is a general term for all processes whereby organic material is heated or partially
combusted to produce secondary fuels and chemical products. The input may be wood,
biomass residues, municipal waste or indeed coal.
• Pyrolysis oil or other thermochemical-derived biomass liquids can be used directly as fuel,
but also hold great promise as platform intermediates for production of high-value chemicals
and materials (Pyrolysis oil sometimes also known as bio-crude or bio-oil, is a synthetic fuel
under investigation as substitute for petroleum).

• Heat bio-material under pressure

– 500-1300 ºC (900-2400 ºF)
– 50-150 atmospheres
– Carefully controlled air supply
• Up to 75% of biomass converted to liquid
• Tested for use in engines, turbines, boilers
• Currently experimental
 Pyrolysis Schmatic

Catalysis is the increase in the rate of a chemical reaction of two or more reactants due to the
participation of an additional substance called a catalyst
Bio-chemical Conversion of Biomass

Anaerobic Digestion
Fermentation
Extraction (Oil-seeds)
 Anaerobic Digestion(break down)
• Decompose biomass with micro-organisms
– Anaerobic digestion is a natural process and is the
microbiological conversion of bio-mass organic matter to
methane in the absence of oxygen.
– The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to
manage waste and/or to produce fuels. This methane-rich
biogas can be used as fuel or as a base chemical for bio-
based products.
– Produces methane (natural gas) and CO2
• Methane-rich biogas can be used as fuel or as a base
chemical for bio-based products.
• Through hydrolysis the complex organic molecules are broken down into simple sugars,
amino acids, and fatty acids.
• The biological process of acidogenesis results in further breakdown of the remaining
components by acidogenic (fermentative) bacteria. Here ammonia, carbon dioxide, and
hydrogen sulfide are created. The process of acidogenesis is similar to the way milk sours.
• simple molecules created through the acidogenesis phase are further digested by
acetogens to produce largely acetic acid, as well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
• The terminal stage of anaerobic digestion is the biological process of methanogenesis.
Here, methanogens use the intermediate products of the preceding stages and convert
them into methane, carbon dioxide, and water.
 Carbon Rich Platform
• Natural plant oils such as soybean, corn, palm, and
canola oils
– In wide use today for food and chemical applications
• Transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat
produces fatty acid methyl-ester
– Commonly known as biodiesel.
• Biodiesel an important commercial air-emission,
substitute for diesel fuel
– could be platform chemical for biorefineries.
 BioFuels
• A variety of fuels can be made from biomass resources including the liquid fuels
ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, and gaseous fuels such as
hydrogen and methane. Biofuels research and development is composed of three
main areas: producing the fuels, applications and uses of the fuels, and distribution
infrastructure.
• Biofuels are primarily used to fuel vehicles, but can also fuel engines or fuel cells
for electricity generation.
• Fuels
 Ethanol
Ethanol is made by converting the carbohydrate portion of biomass into sugar,
which is then converted into ethanol in a fermentation process.
 Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to acids, gases and/or alcohol.
 Biodiesel
Biodiesel is produced through a process in which organically derived oils are
combined with alcohol (ethanol or methanol) in the presence of a catalyst to
form ethyl or methyl ester. The biomass- derived ethyl or methyl esters can be
mixed with conventional diesel fuel or used as a neat fuel (100% biodiesel).
 Biofuels from Synthesis Gas
Syngas (H2 & CO) converted to methanol, or liquid fuel similar to diesel.
Biodiesel Bus