Biomass Technology

Biomass Resources

Dr. May Zon Kyawt Oo

Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Mandalay Technological University

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 What are the resources of biomass?

Biomass Resources
•Biomass Feedstocks.

•Dedicated Energy Crops.

•Agricultural Crop Residue.

•Forestry Residues.

•Algae.
•Wood Processing Residues.

•Sorted Municipal Waste.

•Wet Waste.

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 What are 5 types of biomass?
Types of Biomass Fuels
•Woody Fuels. Wood wastes of all types

make excellent biomass fuels and can be

used in a wide variety of biomass
technologies.
•Forestry Residues.

•Mill Residues.
•Agricultural Residues.

•Urban Wood and Yard Wastes.

•Dedicated Biomass Crops.

•Chemical Recovery Fuels.

•Animal Wastes.
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 What is biomass and what are the
resources of biomass?
 Biomass is organic, meaning it is made of
material that comes from living organisms, such
as plants and animals.
 The most common biomass materials used for
energy are plants, wood, and waste.
 These are called biomass feedstocks.
 Biomass energy can also be a non-renewable energy
source.

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What is the most used biomass
resource?

Wood
Wood is still the largest biomass energy resource
today.
Other sources include food crops, grassy and woody plants,
residues from agriculture or forestry, oil-rich algae, and the
organic component of municipal and industrial wastes.

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 What are 4 types of biomass?

1) wood and agricultural products;

2) solid waste;
3) landfill gas; and
4) alcohol fuels. biomass energy.

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 Why is biomass important?
 Biomass provides a clean, renewable energy source that
could dramatically improve our environment, economy
and energy security.
 Biomass energy generates far less air emissions than fossil
fuels, reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and
decreases our reliance on foreign oil.

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 What are the characteristics of biomass?

Biomass Fuel Performance

Heat Value. The heat value, or amount of heat available in a
fuel (kJ/kg), is one of the most important characteristics of a fuel
because it indicates the total amount of energy that is available
in the fuel.
Moisture Content.
Composition.
Fuel Size and Density.

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 What are the advantages of biomass?

Some of the advantages of biomass energy are:

•Biomass is always and widely available as a renewable source

of energy.
•It is carbon neutral.

•It reduces the overreliance of fossil fuels.

•Is less expensive than fossil fuels.

•Biomass production adds a revenue source for manufacturers.

•Less garbage in landfills.

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 What are some disadvantages of
biomass?

Disadvantages of Biomass
•Biomass fuels are mainly burned on inefficient open fires

and traditional stoves.

•In many cases, the demand for biomass fuels far outweighs

sustainable supply.
•Unclean burning leads to emissions.

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 How is biomass created?

 The logic behind biomass energy is simple.

 Trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air, use
photosynthesis to isolate the carbon, and then use it to build tree
trunks, bark and leaves.
 But when the plant dies, it rots down and much of the carbon is
released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

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 What is the biggest problem with
biomass?

 One of the biggest problems related to biomass large scale

supply is the energy density.
 Briefly, if biomass moisture of conventional wood is 30%,
this means that every 1 ton of wood transported, 300 kg
are water.

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 Is biomass good for the environment?

 Biomass has many benefits, the primary one being that it cannot
be depleted like fossil fuels.
 With an abundance of plants on Earth, biomass could be a
primary source of renewable energy that's used as a
sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.

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 How can biomass be improved?

 However, one way of improving the efficiency of

biomass energy is to use waste biomass from food,
organic waste, animal waste, agricultural waste
and production wastes as an alternative feedstock
for energy production.

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 How does biomass impact the
environment?
 Burning either fossil fuels or biomass releases carbon
dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas.

 However, the plants that are the source of biomass for

energy capture almost the same amount of CO2 through
photosynthesis while growing as is released when biomass
is burned, which can make biomass a carbon-neutral energy
source.

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 What is the future of biomass?

 As it relates to the development of the hydrogen

economy, biomass is expected to remain essential
in developing hydrogen at scale, and will continue
to evolve into other critical roles.
 Furthermore, biomass has been a proven leader in
innovation, applying breakthrough technology to
deliver negative emissions.

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 What is the efficiency of biomass?

 Biomass co-firing in coal- fired power plants also offers

high efficiency between 36%-44%.

 However, co-firing in coal power plants requires

significant boiler retro-fitting, as well as specific
equipment and space for biomass logistics.

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 Who does biomass affect the
environment?

Biomass can be considered a renewable form of energy and

electricity generation as its growth (e.g. of plants or trees)
removes greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and stores it in soil, trees and other vegetation.

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 How does biomass reduce waste?

 Biomass waste-to-energy conversion reduces greenhouse

gas emissions in two ways.
 Heat and electrical energy is generated which reduces
the dependence on power plants based on fossil fuels.
 The greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced by
preventing methane emissions from landfills.

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 Is biomass good or bad?

 Generating bioenergy by burning wood pellets and

creating biofuel from crops such as soy, palm and
rapeseed sounds like a sustainable alternative.
 Biomass energy does more harm than good to our
climate, ecosystems and communities. The root word 'bio'
stems from 'bíos', which means 'life' in Greek.

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