UNIT IV

BIO ENERGY
Biomass Resources
• Biomass resources for energy production encompass a wide spectrum of
materials ranging from forest, agriculture, aquaculture(fresh and sea
water)and industrial and social activities such as food processing, urban
refuse etc.
(i)Forests:
• Forests, natural or cultivated, serve as sources of fuel wood, charcoal and
producer gas. Some fast growing intensive trees such as eucalyptus,
poplar and pine are specially cultivated for the purpose of energy.
(ii)Agricultural residues:
• Crop residues such as straw, rice husk, coconut shell, groundnut shell,
sugarcane baggage etc., are gasified to obtain producer gas.
(iii)Energy crops:
• Certain cultivated plants produce raw material for bio-fuels. They are as
follows:
(a)Sugarcane:
• It is a raw material source, for bio-ethanol. The sugarcane stems are milled to
obtain the cane juice which is subsequent used for sugar(sucrose)or
alcohol(ethanol)production. The residual fraction from the sugarcane stem
milling is named as bagasse. One-third of the total energy is available in
sugarcane and another similar amount is available in bagasse, leaves and cane
tops.
(b)Oil producing plants:
• Oil producing plants such as sunflower, rapeseed, palm oil, castor oil,
soybean, groundnut and cottonseed have the capabilities of producing energy.
(iv)Aquatic plants:
• Some water plants grow very fast and provide raw materials for producing
biogas or ethanol. These are water kelp, seaweed and algae, etc.
(v)Urban waste:
• Urban waste is of two types They are given below.
(a)Municipal solid waste(MSW)
（ b) Sewage(liquid waste).
Advantages of biomass energy:
1.It is a renewable source.
2.The pollutant emissions from combustion of biomass are usually lesser than
fossil fuels.
3.Commercial use of biomass may avoid or reduce the problems of waste
disposal in other industries.
• Use of biogas plants apart from supplying clean gas also leads to
improved and stabilized sanitation.
• The forestry and agricultural industries which supply feed stocks also
provide substantial economic development opportunities in rural
areas.
• The energy storage is an inbuilt feature
Disadvantages
• It is dispersed and land intensive source.
• It is often of low energy density.
• It is also labour intensive and the cost of collecting large quantities of
biomass for commercial application is significant
BIOMASS FUELS
Biomass is an organic carbon based material that reacts with oxygen in
combustion and natural metabolic process to release heat.
• Some of its forms
• Fuel wood
• Charcoal – energy density – 30MJ/kg
• Fuel pellets – staw rice husks, cow dung etc. are pressed to form
lumps
• Bio – ethanol - C2H5OH is a colourless liquid biofuel. Its boiling point
is 78 degree and energy density – 26.9 MJ/kg -derived from wet
biomass containing sugar starches or cellulose.
• Biogas – Organic wastes from plants, animals and humans –produced in biogas
fermenter or digesters. If raw material is cow manure, the output biogas will
contain CH4-50%-60%, CO2 30%-40%,H2 5%-10%, N2 0.5%-0.7% with trace
amounts of O2 and H2S. Its energy density 23MJ/kg- Used for cooking, lighting,
heating znd operating small IC engines etc.
• Properties
• Net calorific value 22.6MJ/m3
• Air required for combustion 5.7m3/m3
• Ignition temperature 700degree centigrade
• Density 1.2kg/m3
• Flash point 650-750 degree C
• Producer gas:Woody matter such as crop residue, wood chips,
bagasse, rice husk, coconut shell etc can be transformed to producer
gas (wood gas, water gas or blue gas) by gasification of solid fuel.
• Vegetable oils-biodiesel- It can be used as such or blended with diesel
as a diesel engine fuel.
PRINCIPLES OF BIO-CONVERSION
• Bioconversion, also known as biotransformation, is defined as the process of
conversion of organic materials such as plant or animal waste into usable
products or energy sources by biological processes or agents such as certain
microorganisms.
Photosynthesis Process
• Biomass energy is obtained by photosynthesis process.
• It means the synthesis process with light.
• Photosynthesis converts solar energy into biomass energy.
• It consists in building up of simple carbohydrates such as sugar in the green leaf
in the presence of sunlight.
• Solar radiation incident on green plants and other photosynthesis organisms
perform two basic functions.
• They are given below.
1.Temperature control for chemical reactions to proceed and
2.Photosynthesis process.
• They are the main source of our foods and clothes(in the form of cotton),furniture etc.
• The net energy absorbed from solar radiation during photosynthesis can be measured from
its combustion.

• where the symbol indicates the carbohydrates.

• For example, the basic chemical reaction for the formation of hexose(glucose, fructose
etc.)using photosynthesis is represented by the following chemical equation

• where ΔQ is enthalpy change of the combustion process equal to the energy absorbed from
photons of solar radiation.
Necessary conditions for photosynthesis process:
• 1.Light:It is one of the important input for biomass production.
• 2.CO2concentration:It is the primary raw material for photosynthesis.
• 3.Temperature:Photosynthesis is restricted to the temperature range 0°C to 60°C
BIOMASS CONVERSION PROCESSES
• There are many biomass conversion routes to prepare energy efficient
biofuels.
• The conversion routes are broadly divided into four categories.
• These are outlined as follows:
1.Physical process
2.Agrochemical process
3.Thermochemical processes
a)Direct combustion
b) Carbonisation
c)Pyrolysis.
d)Gasification
e)Liquefication
4.Biochemical process
a)Anaerobic digestion
b)Ethanol fermentation.
PHYSICAL OR MECHANICAL CONVERSION OF BIOMASS
AND ITS CLASSIFICATION

• Mechanical conversion of biomass is an important method because it is a

solid. Usually, agricultural residues and energy crops have irregular shapes and a
low bulk density due to loose harvest formats. They also have high moisture
content which can accelerate degradation during storage. Therefore, the low
density of biomass makes a challenge for the handling, transportation, storage and
combustion processes. These problems can be reduced by proper processes
called biomass densification and biomass upgrading.
•
Biomass densification is a process to increasing the bulk and energy
densities of a biomass feedstock by reducing its bulk volume to obtain more
uniform properties than raw biomass.
• Mechanical means are used to arrange biomass into predetermined smaller, uniform sizes to
facilitate better handling. transportation and storage.
Biomass upgrading is the process of changing the propeties of biomass
to improve storage. transportation, pretreatment and conversion. For
example, upgrading can reduce moisture content and increase
hydrophobicity to reduce feedstock deterioration during storage.
Upgrading also increases feedstock flowability by improving the handling
of feedstocks and heir grindability. Also, it reduces energy requirements
during the size-reduction process.
Before doing of mechanical conversion biomass, it is necessary to pre-
treatment of biomass.
Pre-treatment of Biomass
Pretreatment is a main tool for cellulose conversion processes which is
essential to change the structure of cellulosic biomass to make cellulose
more available to the enzymes. They convert the carbohydrate polymers
into fermentable sugars.