HANDLING OF BIOMASS,

CONVERT THIS PROBLEM TO

OPPORTUNITY
Prasoon Kumar Gupta
187048
Chemical Engineering Department
 Introduction
• Biomass is renewable organic material that comes from plants
and animals.
• Biomass is important because it contains stored energy referred
to as Bioenergy.
• Biomass contains stored chemical energy from the sun. Plants
produce biomass through photosynthesis
• Versatile in a sense that it can be burned directly for heat or
converted to renewable liquid and gaseous fuels through various
processes.
 Need For Biomass
Handling/Processing
• The consumption of energy in at peak.
• It’s Important for us to use our resources wisely and try
not to waste them.
• Biomass is like an untouched reserve of energy waiting
to be unlocked.
• Greenhouse gases that contributes to the atmospheric heating
can be prevented by utilizing them for energy. E.g., methane
produce during decomposition of biomass.
How much Biomass is available ?
Biomass Used
• “India” has enough agriculture power to
replace half of nation’s fuel requirement.
• Millions of tons of unused agricultural
waste, municipal waste, sawdust, Bagasse
from sugar industry is wasted.
• India produces about 450-500 million tons
of biomass per year.
Power Generation Heating Wasted

Data Reference :https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/india-biomass-market

 Problem with Biomass
• Efficiency of biomass is not good
• Crops grown in order to be burnt for energy take up a lot of land. That land could be
used for other things like conservation, housing, or growing crops for food
• Regional and seasonal availability of biomass and storage problem
• Transporting wet biomass from the plantation to the production site is not cost effective
• Impossible to get long term consistent feedstock supply in reasonable price
• When trees are cut down specifically to create energy, this is overall, worse for the
environment.
• There are no clear rules to govern the of biomass resource
 Advantage And Disadvantage
Advantages
• It is carbon neutral
• reduces the dependence on
fossil fuels.
• less expensive than fossil fuels
• Biomass production can add a
revenue source for farmers and
bring employment.
Disadvantages
• Not as efficient as fossil fuels
• It is not entirely clean
(processing produces more
carbon)
• NOx, soot, ash, CO, CO2 are
produces as biproduct.
 How efficient is Biomass?
According to research conducted by “European
Research Council”. They state that production of
bioenergy is highly efficient, yield eight times (8*) more
energy than was put in production.
In India according to the studies by “Ministry
of New And Renewable Energy” there is a
surplus biomass availability at about 120-150
million metric tons per annum covering
agricultural and forestry residues
corresponding to a potential of about 18,000
MW. 
References :
https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/biomass-crops-are-energy-efficient-and-climate-friendly
https://mnre.gov.in/bio-energy/current-status
 Properties of Biomass
Physical Properties Chemical Composition Elemental Composition
1. Moisture Content 1. Total Ash % 1. Carbon
2. Particle Size 2. Solvent Soluble% 2. Hydrogen
3. Bulk Density 3. Water Soluble % 3. Oxygen
4. Calorific value 4. % Cellulose. etc 4. Nitrogen
5. Sulphur

Testing Methods Utilized

1. Proximate Analysis (%moisture, volatile matter etc.)
2. Ultimate Analysis (Carbon, Hydrogen Sulphur etc.)
3. Gross/Net Calorific Value (Gross>Net)
4. Screening
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Biomass-sources-and-products-see-online-version-for-colours_fig2_332942675
Biomass Processing Technologies

Direct Anaerobic
Fermentation
Combustion Digestion

Pyrolysis Extraction

Gasification
 Brief Overview
Of These Technologies
Combustion of Biomass
1. Combustion is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction
between a fuel and an oxidant.
n*(CH1.44O0.66 + 1.03 O2 = 0.72 H2O + CO2)

2. Rising fossil fuel costs and the development of advanced equipment made
biomass combustion an economical, efficient and practical source of
energy.
3. Combustion produces 15-20 megajoules of energy per kilogram of dry
biomass.
4. Biomass combustion systems can generate hot air, hot water, steam,
electricity, or a combination, depending on Requirements.
 Anaerobic digestion
1. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a process where plant and animal materials
are broken down by micro-organisms in the absence of air.
2. Main product obtained from this is Methane, and the by product can be
used as a fertilizer.
3. Anaerobic Digestion is versatile in feed that can be used. E.g. food waste,
slurry, manure, as well as crops and their residue.
4. About (AD) Efficiency, according to studies efficiency varies from 20-
70% depending on the feed type and feed quality.

Data Reference:
Evaluating digestion efficiency in full-scale anaerobic digesters by identifying active microbial populations through the lens of
microbial activity//Ran Mei, Takashi Narihiro, Masaru K. Nobu, Kyohei Kuroda & Wen-Tso Liu
Fermentation
1. Fermentation is especially suitable when the biomass waste have a high
sugar or water content, as is the case with a variety of agricultural wastes
e.g. Bagasse.
2. In this organic materials are break down into glucose.
3. Yeast or bacillus are added to the biomass, they feed on the sugars to
produce main product ethanol and side product carbon dioxide
4. There is a series of chemical reactions which is used to get alcohol or acid
from sugars.
 Pyrolysis
• Pyrolysis is the thermal
decomposition of biomass
occurring in the absence of
oxygen.
• Biochar, bio-oil, and gases like
methane, hydrogen, carbon
monoxide, and carbon dioxide
are main product of biomass
pyrolysis.
• Among other methods
pyrolysis is most efficient
having efficiency of about 80-
89%.

Data Reference:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_calculate_the_thermal_e
fficiency_of_a_pyrolysis_reactor
 18,000 Megawatt
Of biomass energy can be produced in India

Data Reference:
Ministry Of New And Renewable Energy: https://mnre.gov.in/bio-energy/current-status
Learnings and
Contributions
Some of them are listed as:

• As we saw that biomass is still not a perfect carbon neutral process, but if we
integrate a carbon capture technology, we can easily counter one of the major
drawback of Biomass energy. E.g. (seeo2energy.com)
• High-quality biomass (wood) is best, but is limited, expensive and not always
sustainable to have. So we can utilize agroforestry residues, it is high availability
and fully environmentally friendly.
• Chipping, pelleting, briquetting activities, enhance biomass energy density
increasing transportation efficiency.(Team Hermetica did a Project on Briquetting
in 2019).
 Conclusion
I would like to conclude my presentation.
Biomass is a vast topic, and it still needs proper attention form our industry to
use it for good.
Thankyou!
Any questions?
 Credits
Special thanks to all people/researchers who made and shared these awesome
resources :

Photographs by unsplash.com/Research Gate

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