Biomass Energy

Sandip KC Roll: 11
Sushant Mahat Roll: 15
2.1.1 Biomass and bio-fuels overview
Biomass
Biomass is plant or animal material used for
energy production
heat production
various industrial processes as raw material for a range of products.

Biomass is a renewable resource so far as its production is continued in a

sustainable way

Present in huge amount

Biomass Sources

Wood or forest residues

Waste from food crops (wheat straw, bagasse)

Horticulture (yard waste)

Food processing (corn cobs)

Biomass Sources

Animal farming (manure, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus)

Human waste from sewage plants

Purposely grown energy crops

Classification of Biomass Sources

Note: Biomasses from woody

materials are in the shaded areas.

Classification of sources of biomass

for production of energy

Ref:
Global Potential of Sustainable
Biomass for Energy
Svetlana Ladanai
Johan Vinterbäck
SLU, Institutionen för energi och
teknik
Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences
Department of Energy and Technology
Report 013
ISSN 1654-9406
Uppsala 2009
Biomass energy
Energy extracted form the biomass items.

Fuels from biomass can take various forms such as liquid, gas, and solid.

Biomass can be converted into modern energy forms such as liquid and
gaseous fuels, electricity, and process heat to provide energy services
needed by rural and urban populations and also by industry
Bio fuel

Utilization of biomass as fuel

Biomass can be burnt directly as fuel (fuel wood charcoal)

Can be converted into gas fuel (Pyrolysis gas, CH4)

Can also be converted into liquid fuel (ethanol, biodiesel)

(not competitive in market)

Biomass potential and resources on a global scale

The annual global primary production of biomass is equivalent to the

4,500 EJ of solar energy captured each year (Sims, 2004).

About 5% of this energy, or 225 EJ, would have covered almost 50% of
the world’s total primary energy demand in 2006, as shown in Figure

These 225 EJ are in line with other estimates based on models which
assume an annual sustainable bioenergy market of 270 EJ (Hall &
Rosillo-Calle, 1998).
2.1.2 Application of biomass energy
Applications

from small stoves used in homes for heating or cooking

to
large power plants used by centralized utilities to produce electricity.
Applications
Residential Applications

Biomass can be used for space heating or for cooking.

Wood is the most common source of fuel, although many different

materials are used.

New designs for woodstoves can improve the efficiency of the cooking or
heating system, decreasing the amount of fuel that is needed.
Applications
Industrial Application
Use biomass for several purposes as:
space heating
hot water heating
electricity generation.
Many industrial facilities, such as saw mills, sugar mills, naturally
produce organic waste.
Applications
Electricity Generation
In recent years biomass gasifiers have been used
for electrification of remote villages. The size of
such systems can vary from 10kWe to 500kWe.

Off grid and Grid Connection electricity supply

can be made

HRSG- Heat Recovery Steam Generator

x

2.1.3 Thermo-chemical, biochemical and agrochemical

processes
Thermo chemical process
Thermochemical processes involve heat and oxygen as main reagents
with the solid biomass to produce a number of primary products and
by-products.
Gasification
Pyrolysis
Biochemical Process
Conversion of biomass involves use of bacteria, microorganisms and
enzymes to breakdown biomass into gaseous or liquid fuels, such as
biogas or bioethanol.
Anaerobic Digestion (or bio-methanation)
Fermentation.
Biomass wastes can also yield liquid fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol,
which can be used to replace petroleum-based fuels.
Agrochemical Process
Process of conversion of Agricultural wastes to biomass and further
processing to extract energy.
Manure Brickets
Straw
Hay
Maize Plants
2.1.4 Biomass Properties and Composition
Biomass Properties
Biomass is seasonal; most energy and feedstock demands are continuous.

Biomass is very heterogeneous and complex; properties of biomass can

vary with the species of plant, the location in which it was grown, the
growing conditions, the harvest and storage conditions, etc.
The ability to consistently and accurately measure biomass properties is
therefore critical to designing bioprocessing operations.

Biomass has a relatively low energy density, meaning that it takes a lot
more biomass to supply the same amount of energy as a traditional
hydrocarbon fuel.
 Biomass Composition
Plant cell wall is constituted by mainly 6 components: 
(i) cellulose
(ii) hemicellulose
(iii) lignin
(iv) water soluble sugars, amino acids and aliphatic acids 
(v) ether and alcohol-soluble constituents (e.g. fats, oils, waxes, resin and many
pigments)
(vi) proteins.
These components build up plant biomass. Proportion of these constituents
vary in different groups of plants and even in the same group
https://biocyclopedia.com/index/biotechnology/biotechnology_and_environment/biomass_a_renewable_source_of_ener
gy/biotech_biomass_composition_of_biomass.php
2.1.5 Biomass Conversion
Solid fuel combustion
Simplest and most common way of extracting energy from biomass.

Majority of the developing countries especially in rural areas obtain the

majority of their energy needs from the burning of wood, animal dung and
other biomass.

But burning can be inefficient.

An open fireplace may let large amounts of heat escape, while a significant
proportion of the fuel may not even get burnt.
Gasification
• Gasification is a process that exposes a solid fuel to high temperatures and limited
oxygen, to produce a gaseous fuel.
• This is a mix of gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen
and methane.
• Resultant gases, methane, can be treated in a similar way as natural gas, and used
for the same purposes.
• It produces a fuel that has had many impurities removed and will therefore cause
fewer pollution problems when burnt.
• And, under suitable circumstances, it can produce synthesis gas, a mixture of
carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This can be used to make almost any hydrocarbon
(e.g., methane and methanol), which can then be substituted for fossil fuels.
Pyrolysis
• Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated
temperatures in an inert atmosphere.
• Irreversible reaction
• It involves heating the biomass to drive off the volatile matter, leaving
behind the black residue we know as charcoal.
• This has double the energy density of the original material. This
means that charcoal, which is half the weight of the original biomass,
contains the same amount of energy – making the fuel more
transportable.
Digestion
• Biomass digestion works by the action of anaerobic bacteria.

• These microorganisms usually live at the bottom of swamps or in other places

where there is no air, consuming dead organic matter to produce, among
other things, methane and hydrogen.

• By feeding organic matter such as animal dung or human sewage into tanks –
called digesters - and adding bacteria, we can collect the emitted gas to use as
an energy source. This can be a very efficient means of extracting usable
energy from such biomass – up to two-thirds of the fuel energy of the animal
dung is recovered.
Fermentation
• For centuries, people have used yeasts and other microorganisms to
ferment the sugar of various plants into ethanol.

• Producing fuel from biomass by fermentation is just an extension of

this old process

• Wider range of plant material can now be used, from sugar cane to
wood fiber.
References
https://www.bioenergyconsult.com/biochemical-conversion-technologies/
https://www.bioenergyconsult.com/biochemical-conversion-technologies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass
Osamu Kitani, CIGR Handbookof Agricultural Engineering, Volume V -
Energy and Biomass Engineering, Nihon University, Japan
L.Umanand, 2007, Biomass Energy, Indian Institute of Science
William H. Green, 2010, Biomass Part I: Resources and uses,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology