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Bioenergy and Biomass processing. An overview

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Mini-review

Bioenergy and Biomass processing – An overview

Abhijeet Singh, M. Sc.
E-mail – abhijeetsingh.aau@gmail.com

Abstract

The extensive use of fossil fuels has created a global problem of pollution and other environmental
menace. Nevertheless, there is huge increase in the awareness and global involvement in the
environmental conservation and sustainable ecosystem. This impetus in the natural conservation inspired
to think for the alternative and renewable resources to meet the energy demand of the increasing
population. The concept of bioenergy is one of the very important part and pivotal factor of the recent
trends in the alternative energy regime. In this review, a brief introduction of the bioenergy and biomass
processing is presented with the overall reconsideration and future overview of the bioenergy and society.

Introduction Due to the growing environmental concerns like global

Since the time immemorial, the human civilization is
dependent on the energy to sustain themselves. In the
dawn of human evolution the energy requirement was
limited to mere food. During the development, early
human conserved the body heat by using the animal hide
as clothes. The use of fire as the energy source has
completely changed the course of human evolution and
development. Since then till today, human flourished and
its energy demand has increased. The development was
made by using any energy source which could had been
used like forest wood and fossil fuels. This caused a huge
damaged to the environment as such energy sources are
not only caused the negative impact on environment
during extraction, but also caused the environmental
pollution. For instance, the forest wood is obtained by
cutting down the forest, thus it causes the damage of
natural habitat of animals and bio-geological disturbance,
while burning the wood cause the production of smoke
and various gases which is not favorable for the
atmosphere. Similarly, fossil fuel like coal and petroleum
product also damages the environment. The rat race of
the development lead to the destruction of millions of
hectares of the forests and seafloor and overlooked the
damage to the environment. According to an
environmentalist’s point of view there are several
problems which the biosphere is dealing with, in recent
times. They are enlisted as follows:
 Pollution
 Natural resources depletion
 Deforestation and reduction in biodiversity
 Waste disposal
 Global warming and ozone layer depletion
 Public health issues
 Aesthetic losses
warming, pollution there are different reclamation
measure are being taken. The European Union (EU) is
very prompt in making the guidelines on the current
situation towards the sustainable environment. EU have
also formulated some objectives for the natural
conservation (SEA 2015):
a. Reduction in the greenhouse gases emission by 20%
b. Improve the energy efficiency and reduce energy
dissipation by 20%
c. Use of renewable energy up to 20% of all energy
demand and 10% share in transport fuel usage
Sweden is one of the leading countries which is rapidly
increasing the share of renewable energy for its overall
energy demand. It has also forged a very ambitious goal
to transform its transport sector into a fossil fuel
independent medium by the year 2030 (SEA 2015).
Generally the above mentioned problems are created by
the use of non-renewable energy sources. Non-renewable
energy is the energy harvested from sources like wood,
coal, fossil fuels, nuclear energy et cetera. The damaged
caused by the industrialization in the last century was
obvious enough that it compelled to find the alternative
for non-renewable energy. This notion motivated to
exploit the everlasting energy available in the form of
wind, water, sun, biological wastes et cetera by using
different specific processes. Aforesaid form of energy
which is readily replaced or recycled by the natural
processes and can be used again, are referred as
renewable energy (Sharma et al. 2017). With reference to
the biological point of view the renewable energy gained
by the use of biological entity is known as Bioenergy.
Bioenergy or Biomass-based energy is produced from the
materials of biological origin. Bioenergy is the form of
energy which is derived directly or indirectly by the use
of biomass. Biomass is any organic material which is

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biodegradable, is derived from plants, animals or any
other biological forms and considered as renewable in the
environment. Biomass includes wood, agricultural crops,
household waste, biodegradable plastic, agricultural
waste, compost and manure et cetera (Bridgwater 1999;
Sharma et al. 2017).
Figure 1: A diagrammatic representation of the biological material/biomass conversion process. 1) different kinds of feedstock
used as the feedstock in the energy conversion process 2) Conversion methods using different technologies which results in
different energy dense biofuel 3) biomass upgrading, also called densification process (pelletisation, pyrolysis, torrefaction et
cetera) (Bauen et al 2009)
The transformation of energy – Biomass to Bioenergy
Every biological material (non-living) contains simple
and complex biomolecules made up of carbohydrates,
proteins and lipids. Therefore, they stores the energy
which can be utilized by other organisms like
microorganisms or the biological material can be taken
under some processing for the transformation of stored
energy to the usable form of energy for us. For instance,
the crop residue stores energy in the form of
lignocellulose and structural proteins, but bioethanol
produced from such sources can be used for running the
biofuel based vehicles. There are several methods by
which such energy transformation can be achieved, and
these methods are represented in Figure 1.
Processing Biomass
For the maximum gain of the energy from the biomass,
the bio-based materials are treated using different
methods and techniques. This process makes the energy
transformation easier and efficient. For a sense of
understanding, the biofuels can be classified as solid
(wood chips, pellets, charcoal), liquid (biodiesel,
bioethanol) and gaseous (biogas, syngas, hydrogen)
biofuels (Bauen et al 2009; Kwant & Buckley 2015).
Different conversion technologies have been developed
for the processing of biomass based on the physical and
chemical properties on the biological material. The
conversion technologies might be based on the
thermochemical processes (chemical degradation at high
temperature), physicochemical processes (mechanical
application and biochemical processing) or biological
conversions (fermentation) et cetera (Bauen et al 2009).
On the basis of the physical state, the resulting biofuels
can be classified into three classes i.e. solid biofuels,
liquid biofuels and gaseous biofuels.
1. Solid Biofuels
The European technical committee for standardization
(CEN) drafted a standard (CEN/TS 14961) which
describe 27 technical specifications for the solid biofuels
(Grammelis 2011). The two most important technical
specifications according to European standard (EN) are
classification and specification (EN 14961) and quality
assurance (EN 15234) (E. Alakangas 2011; Grammelis
2011). On the basis of their origin and source, solid
biofuels are classified into four classes: 1) woody
biomass, 2) herbaceous biomass, 3) fruit biomass and 4)
blends and mixtures (E. Alakangas 2011). Quality
assurance (ISO 9001) aims to provide confidence that
quality is monitored and maintained according to the
European standards (EN 15234) and customer
requirements.
When the biomass is in solid physical state, it can be used
directly as the fuel (wood). However, if the biomass is
not suitable for the direct use (sawdust, agricultural
residues), pre-treatment or upgrading process is carried
out to transform the biological material in the more
usable form. This is generally carried out by pelletisation,
pyrolysis/hydrothermal and upgrading torrefaction
(Bauen et al 2009). Pellets are prepared by the
compression of small particles and extrusion from an
opening so that the resulting mass is a pellet which is
easier to transport and handle as compared to its previous
form (sawdust). Pyrolysis is the controlled thermal
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decomposition of the biomass in the absence of oxygen
which produces Liquid bio-oil, syngas and bio-charcol.
Torrefaction is an efficient process carried out at 200-
300˚C and biomass is chemically upgraded into a dry,
coal like product (Bridgwater 1999; Rosendahl 2013;
Bauen et al 2009; Kwant & Buckley 2015).
2. Liquid biofuels
Liquid biofuels are being used since the late 1970s,
however, recent development in the research aided the
wide spread use of liquid biofuels as a supplement for the
conventional fossil fuels like diesel, petrol et cetera.
Bioethanol and biodiesel (80% and 20% of the market
share, respectively), accounts for the around 3% of the
global demand (Iea-Etsap 2013). The liquid biofuels are
primarily classified into first generation and second
generation biofuels on the basis of the feedstock used to
produce them (Nigam & Singh 2011). First generation
liquid biofuels are produced from fermenting sugar or
grain/seed, and are relatively easier in production (Pathak
et al. 2013). Second generation liquid biofuels are refined
using different processing technologies i.e. biological
and thermochemical methods on the lignocellulosic
biomass (Nigam & Singh 2011). In addition to the two
generations, third generation of liquid biofuels is an
emerging alternative energy resource to the fossil fuels.
Recent researches are focused on the use of agricultural
residues and waste vegetable oils as a substrate for the
microbes and microalgae (Nigam & Singh 2011). The
advantage of liquid biofuels is that they are helpful in
significant reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) up to
(70%). The international energy agency (IEA) have
estimated the use of liquid biofuels up to 9.3% by 2030
and 27% of the market share by 2050 (Iea-Etsap 2013).
3. Gaseous biofuels
Gaseous biofuels can not only be used as the means to
produce electricity and heating, but also can be used as a
good alternative to fossil fuel in transportation.
Methane/biogas, hydrogen and dimethyl ether (DME) are
most common used gaseous biofuels (Scragg 2009)
(Figure 2). Biogas is a comprehensive biofuel produced
from the renewable resources like crop residue,
household waste, community waste or waste water is an
excellent alternative to the fossil fuels. The upgraded
biogas (methane content >98%) can be directly used as a
fuel, provided small changes in the engine of vehicles.
Methane rich biogas (biomethane) can also be used as a
hydrocarbon source for the production of chemicals in
industries (Weiland 2010). Biogas production is a very
old method (1000-2000 years) primarily used for the
sanitization of the communal wastes (Schnürer 2016).
Later, biogas production was used for heating houses and
cooking. In recent years, biogas is produced on the
industrial scale and its becoming an integrated part of the
biological waste treatment. Biogas is produced by the
anaerobic digestion of the biomass in an oxygen free
environment (Bauen et al 2009; Weiland 2010).
Anaerobic digestion of the organic material by a
cooperation/collaboration of microorganisms of different
phylogeny is considered as most energy efficient and
environmental friendly method of biofuel production
(Scragg 2009; Weiland 2010).
Figure 2: Production of gaseous biofuels from biomass of
different origin. Biogas, dimethyl ether and hydrogen are the 1st,
2nd and 3rd generation gaseous biofuels, respectively (Scragg
2009).
The main and inflammable constituent of biogas is
methane. Methane production is a complex process
which includes four main phases 1) hydrolysis, 2)
acidogenesis, 3) acetogenesis and 49 methanogenesis
(Schnürer 2016; Scragg 2009) (Figure 3). In hydrolysis
and acidogenesis process complex biomolecules
/polymers are converted into monomers or oligomers.
Further, proton-reducing acidogenic organisms oxidize
acids and alcohol produced in the acidogenesis process to
hydrogen, carbon dioxide and acetate. Methane is
produced in the last step of the anaerobic digestion
process by a group of obligate anaerobes, which have
very strict environmental requirements. These anaerobes
are slow growing organisms and are sensitive towards the
oxygen, temperature and pH (Schnürer 2016; Energigas
Sverige 2011).
Biomass and biogas production
To maintain optimum population diversity of the
microorganisms in biogas reactors, a good balance of
macro and micronutrients are required. Most often the
co-digestion (mixture of different substrate) reactors are
the better choice as they are superior in maintaining the
water and nutrient content and possible dilution of the
inhibitors and harmful substances. The biochemical
composition of the substrate is a critical parameter for the
volume of methane produced, biomass degradation and
reaction kinetics (Schnürer 2016). The protein rich
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materials like slaughterhouse waste yields high methane
and the digestate is an excellent manure for the farmers
(Westerholm et al. 2016). Reactors running on the
substrate with high nitrogen content must be maintained
monitored continuously because high nitrogen can result
in the high ammonia concentrations which is inhibitory
for the further process involving methanogens that are
responsible for the biogas/methane production
(Westerholm et al. 2016; Schnürer 2016). The biomass
rich in the fat content is also a high methane producing
substrate. Nevertheless, the degradation of lipids results
in the increase content of short and long chain fatty acids
which might cause the decreased pH, foaming and
inhibits the methanogens. (Schnürer 2016).
Figure 3. Biochemical stages/phases in the anaerobic digestion
process (Scragg 2009; Schnürer 2016).
Microbiology of the biogas production has been studies
since many years, however with the advancement in
different detection and analytic techniques, a whole new
paradigm is open for the research in this field. The recent
DNA based sequencing techniques indicated about the
many different groups of microorganism associated with
the biogas process have not been identified and studied
yet (Schnürer 2016). Therefore, there is much work to be
done to understand the microbiology and biochemical
pathways of the biogas process.
Modern research approach in bioenergy
As the technology for the analysis and detection is getting
sophisticated day by day, scientists are formulating new
ways to increase the efficiency and yield of the biofuels.
In this regard, the microbial metabolic engineering has its
huge importance. Metabolic engineering has a huge
potential in the production of biofuels on the industrial
scale (Morgan et al. 2016). In the past few years, the
metabolic engineering to use cyanobacteria for biofuel
and chemical production have gained a lot of attention
due to its ease of genetic modifications and relatively fast
growth (Oliver et al. 2016). The development of better
understanding of the metabolism and synthetic biology
tools can greatly help in the efficient biofuel production
form cyanobacteria (Oliver et al. 2016). Furthermore,
researchers are trying also trying to transplant the CO 2
fixation pathways and energy harvesting systems from
autotrophs to the heterotrophs (Claassens et al. 2016).
Some conceptual studies are also formulated for the
innovation of hybrid between auto and heterotrophic
microorganisms with electro-catalysts or light-harvesting
semiconductors (Claassens et al. 2016).
The use of biosensors in the metabolic engineering for
the biofuel production is also a recent and interesting
technical advancement. Biosensors are the genetic codes
embedded on an organism to manipulate the cellular
output in response to the change in the concentration of
the molecules required for the metabolism. Thus, they
appear to be a potential tool for the quick and high
throughput analysis of the biochemical pathways
(Morgan et al. 2016) (Figure 4). The practical application
of the biosensors lies in many sectors. For example, a
biosensor related with the fluorescence can be used to
screen the metabolite of interest/ biofuel which derives
the fluorescence signal due to the change in the
metabolite concentration. Such biosensors could
potentially be used for the potential biofuel pathways
(Morgan et al. 2016).
Figure 4: General outline of the biosensor and its
potential/influence on the metabolic engineering process as
compared to the conventional methods (Morgan et al. 2016)
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Bioeconomy and biorefining
Bioeconomy is the term used for the economy based of
the sustainable and biomass derived sources for the
energy for instance food, feed, fuels, chemicals et cetera.
This concepts includes the sustainable use of the natural
resources/biomass and efficient use of the modern
technology to derive the maximum output for different
purposes i.e. biomass engineering, drying and
deconstruction, extraction of phytochemicals,
improvement in fermentation and biogas production
et cetera (Golberg et al. 2016). The functioning unit of a
bioeconomy is called biorefinary. In practice the
bioeconomy can be a sustainable and low-carbon
emission economy which produces food, feed, fuels and
chemicals without/minimum use of fossil fuels.
However, the actual practice of bioeconomy is based on
several factors like availability of biomass, production
and processing technologies, the environmental impacts
and social-ecomical flexibility (Golberg et al. 2016). The
use of pulsed field electric field (PFE) technologies for
the production of biofuels is an example of the
biorefinery. The PEF technology is helpful in the
production of improved feedstock by genetic
manipulation, energy saving during processing of the
biomass, improved extraction of high value products and
biofuels and reduction in waste generation (Golberg et al.
2016) (Figure 5).
Figure 5: A graphical representation of the biorefinery using the
pulsed electric field technology (Golberg et al. 2016)
Merits and demerits of the biofuels
As a renewable resources, biofuels are sustainable and
will not run out of supply, since they come in the
processing cycle again and again. Biofuels are produced
generally in the way that they do not harm the availability
of food and feed in the society and also take care of the
communal waste, thus it reduces the waste of the
resources and minimizes the emission of CO2 and other
harmful chemicals. In spite of tons of merits, biofuels can
never compete the petroleum products since, the energy
produced by the fossil fuels is much higher and efficient
than the biofuels (Shankar & Shikha 2017). Additionally,
some byproducts of the petroleum industries are so
important in the modern society, that, a complete removal
of the petroleum products from the society is very hard at
least in the near future. One most important factor to
consider is the availability of the biomass for processing
and biofuel production, which is also limited and
increasing the supply of biomass for the biofuel
production might hamper the food cycle in the society.
Hence, fossil fuels are the necessary evil of the
developing world.
Additional important factors of the bioeconomy
The most beautiful part of the bioeconomy is the
maximum utilization of the available natural resources
for the sustainable and clean environment. This makes its
diverse and can be incorporated into many different
modern concepts. For instance, recent development in the
physics, automotive and energy sector and the detection
and analytic facilities made the bioeconomy concept
more practical.
The development of electric cars and improved battaries
has encouraged people for taking electric cars in
consideration as a normal and practical vehicle, instead
of a fiction out of the sci-fi movies. The emergence of the
hybrid and fuel cell cars has also a great impact on the
carbon emission in the transportation sector (Nykvist &
Nilsson 2015). The recent improvement of
semiconductors led to the improved and affordable solar-
penals for the house installation also reduced the
electricity demand. The developed turbines harvest most
energy from the wind and tidal waves, as compared to
before. If all these aspect are taken into consideration, the
demand of fossil fuels is greatly influenced. This is also
reflecting in the demand and dependence of the crude oil
around the world. Although the demand for crude oil is
ever increasing, there is huge reduction in the
dependence on the fossil resources. Scott Nyquist, an
author and leader in sustainable resources pointed that “a
world powered by renewables is not around the corner.
This will be a long-term transition—a matter of decades,
not years. But the resiliency of the sector in the face of
much lower oil and gas prices is a sign that it may just be
on its way”.
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