Biomass

Basics:
Energy from the sun, via photosynthesis in plants This is the same energy we use as food This is the same energy that made fossil
fuels; fossil fuels are concentrated over time by the heat and pressure within the Earth.

The oldest form of energy used by humans: wood fire.

What is biomass?
Chemically:
Plant material is a combination of cellulose (about 60%), lignin (about 30%), and other organic materials (about 10%). Cellulose is
the structural material in plants (fibers) Lignin is the glue that holds the cellulose together Both start with simple sugars (glucose)
made in photosynthesis
Physically:
Any plant tissue can be used for energy, but the faster the plant grows, the more useful it is. Growing energy crops.Poplar trees grown
for energy. These are 2 year old seedlings. Genetically engineered and bred for fast growth.
Trees: poplar and willow can be grown to large size very rapidly: 7 year old poplars in picture. Harvesting trees is done using
standard forestry equipment.
Grasses:Switchgrass can be grown rapidly (one season), and harvested using standard farm implements.
Grasses are attractive also because they can be grown in climates unfavorable to trees.

How does it work?

How do we convert biomass energy to useful forms of energy?

•Direct burning
•Gasification
•Cofiring
•Fermentation

Direct burning
Direct burning is as it sounds. Plant material is chipped, dried, and then burned to boil water, make steam, and then electricity. This is
a relatively inefficient technology and the most polluting method of energy from biomass.
Gasification:

Gasification is the conversion of biomass into a gas and carbon powder. Process begins with pyrolysis. Biomass is combined with hot
sand (800˚C). This reduces biomass to gases and carbon powder. The gases are used to run a turbine.They are then recycled back to be
burned for fuel. Increases overall efficiency
Gasification Advantages are:
•Cleaner (but still ash to deal with)
•More efficient, 40% demonstrated, 50% possible
Cofiring:

Cofiring is the use of biomass in combination with coal. Advantages are: •Biomass cheaper than coal, so cofiring is cheaper than
burning coal alone .
•Less sulfur oxides (less coal burned); pollution and cost savings
•Easy to adapt current systems to cofiring

Fermentation:

Fermentation is the production of alcohol (ethanol mainly) from sugars in biomass. The alcohol can be burned alone, or mixed with
gasoline.
•Mixtures can range from 10% ethanol (often used to reduce pollution) to 100% ethanol
•Ethanol is more expensive than gasoline currently (although comparisons are hard to make due to the many subsidies for both).
•Net energy yield from ethanol is low, could be much better with cellulosic ethanol

Energy from ethanol is less than that from gasoline. But it produces less pollution (especially carbon monoxide) as it burns at a higher
temperature, and thus more fully oxidizes. Most ethanol is from corn (about 95%). The rest is from sugarcane. Brazil uses ethanol
from sugarcane to power about 1/3 of its cars. Keep in mind that energy is needed to produce ethanol, and that this energy currently
comesform fossil fuels. [1]
Pyrolysis:
In its simplest form, pyrolysis represents heating the biomass to drive off the volatile matter and leaving behind the charcoal. This
process has doubled the energy density of the original material because charcoal, which is half the weight of the original biomass,
contains the same amount of energy, making the fuel more transportable. The charcoal also burns at a much higher temperature than
the original biomass, making it more useful for manufacturing processes. More sophisticated pyrolysis techniques are developed
recently to collect volatiles that are otherwise lost to the system. The collected volatiles produce a gas which is rich in hydrogen (a
potential fuel) and carbon monoxide. These compounds are synthesized into methane, methanol, and other hydrocarbons. The steps
involved in this process are illustrated in Figure 3 [7]. Figure 3: Pyrolysis Process Flash pyrolysis is used to produce bio-crude, a
combustible fuel. Heat is used to chemically convert biomass into pyrolysis oil. The oil, which is easier to store and transport than
solid biomass material, is then burned like petroleum to generate electricity. Pyrolysis can also convert biomass into phenol oil, a
chemical used to make wood adhesives, molded plastics, and foam insulation.

Digestion:

Biomass digestion works by utilizing 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 methane and hydrogen. We put these bacteria to work for us.
By feeding organic matter such as animal dung or human sewage into tanks, called digesters, and adding bacteria, we collect the
emitted gas to use as an energy source. This process is a very efficient means of extracting usable energy from such biomass. Usually,
up to two thirds of the fuel energy of the animal dung could be recovered. Another related technique is to collect methane gas from
landfill sites. A large proportion of household biomass waste, such as kitchen scraps, lawn clipping and pruning, ends up at the local
tip. Over a period of several decades, anaerobic bacteria at the bottom of such tips could steadily decompose the organic matter and
emit methane. The gas can be extracted and used by capping a landfill site with an impervious layer of clay and then inserting
perforated pipes that would collect the gas and bring it to the surface
Conversion to methane:

Conversion to methane Methane production is most useful with animal and human wastes, as well as landfill wastes, where it happens
naturally. This is attractive in rural areas, and can help reduce ethanol costs by supplying energy needed in the corn to ethanol process.
[2]
Biomass Conversion Process Table

Biomass Resources and Biorenewable Resources

Biomass Resources, sometimes referred to as biorenewable resources, are all forms of organic materials, including
plant matter both living and in waste form, as well as animal matter and their waste products. As such biomass resources
are generally classified as being either waste materials or dedicated energy crops.
A waste material can be any municipal solid waste and industrial waste material that has been discarded because it no
longer has any apparent value to the user or which represents a nuisance or even a potential pollutant to the local
environment. If the organic waste products from one process was used as primary source of feedstock in another
process, for example, waste cardboard, wood and paper recycled into newspapers, books and magazines, then if these
waste materials were economically converted into electricity, heat, liquid biofuels, or chemicals, then they could be
considered as a biomass resource rather than an unwanted waste stream.
Waste materials that would qualify as a biorenewable resource include agricultural residues, yard and garden waste,
municipal solid waste, food processing waste, animal manure, etc. Existing landfill areas are now filled beyond capacity.
The search for new landfill sites for the dumping of solid waste is becoming increasingly difficult due to public protest.
Finding new landfill sites away from urbanized areas means that the longer distance travelled from the city center
increases the wastes transportation cost tremendously.
But the energy generated from waste cannot be ignored as a valuable bioenergy source. If effectively harnessed, the
energy produced from wastes can be used to lessen the demand for energy generation using nonrenewable fossil fuel
sources.
Furthermore, the generation of energy from solid waste materials brings extra significance by reducing the volume of the
the unwanted waste, saving on landfill space and providing a biomass resource which would otherwise be of no value.

Solid Biomass Resources

So what types of solid waste materials qualify as a biorenewable resource.

 Agricultural Residues are the non-edible stalk type materials that remain after the harvest of the edible portions
of the crops, such as corn, wheat, grain and sugar cane. Agricultural residues also includes plant leaves, husks,
some roots and stems. The residues of dedicated bioenergy non-food crops grown for their starches, sugars, or
oils for the conversion into bioethanol and biolubricants. The advantage of agricultural residues is that they do not
require the use of additional land space because they are grown together with the food crops.

 Food Processing Waste is the effluent wastes from a wide variety of industrial processes ranging from breakfast
and cereal bar manufacturers to fresh and frozen vegetable manufacturers to alcohol breweries. These residues
 and wastes can be in the form of either dry solids or watery liquids. Fermentation of liquid wastes and oils from
food processing can produce Ethanol.

 Municipal Solid Waste this is the items that are thrown away in the garbage and trash and is collected by the
dustbin men or sent to the recycling centre. Municipal solid waste such as particularly paper, cardboard, and
discarded food products, is an attractive source of endless biomass feedstock. However, not all municipal waste
is suitable as a biomass resource, especially metallic and plastic waste.

 Animal Waste from farms, ranches, slaughterhouses, fisheries and dairies or any concentration of animals into
giant livestock farming facilities produces large amounts of manure and sewage sludge. Liquid sewage, animal
wastes, and also human waste from urban areas, provides a constant source of chemical energy and gases
which can be converted into electrical power at these wastewater treatment plants. The treatment of animal waste
produces combustible methane and biogas which can then be used for heating and transportation.
The management and disposal of solid waste has become one of the major problems we are facing today. The increase
in the volume of unwanted waste is one aspect of the current environmental crisis. Other than the the difficulty in
characterising the waste material, due in part to its variable and complex composition, many waste materials share a few
common attributes with each other, with the principal one being their low cost.
Because of this, solid waste materials have little or no apparent economic value and can therefore be acquired for little
more than their cost of transportation. In some cases, waste is regarded as a negative cost due to the every increasing
costs of skip hire for solid waste disposal or the restrictions on the disposal of certain types of wastes at landfill sites,
many companies or households are only to happy to pay someone to dispose of their waste as a biorenewable resource
for processing.
Clearly, waste materials which can be reprocessed into biomass feedstock for use in an energy conversion process are
stherefore no longer classed as an unwanted waste material with the demand for these new-found renewable biomass
resources on the increase. As waste now presents itself as an attractive biorenewable resource, many now demand
payment for their waste. Then those companies or households that generate the waste now view themselves as waste
suppliers turning what was once a negative cost into a positive profit.
But as well as using waste materials as a biomass resource, dedicated energy crops can be grown specifically as an
energy source. These dedicated energy crops are not only greener and cleaner with respect to solid waste materials, but
their use represents a closed and balanced carbon cycle with regards to atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Dedicated Energy Crops
Until now, Energy crops have been largely ignored in favour of growing food crops to feed people and animals, but as
fuel prices increase and fossil fuel supplies run low, interest is now increasing as the economics of extracting fossil fuel
energy becomes more expensive and complex. But as well as using the waste of agricultural crops, it is also possible to
grow crops specifically for the production of energy in the form of energy crops.
The Earth holds huge stocks of biorenewable and biomass resources covering wide regions of the planet, from fields, to
forests, to the oceans. Already there is large scale production of energy crops around the world, including those that
produce biofuels and biolubricants. Whether or not it is sustainable or viable to use such large areas of farmland and
forests to produce dedicated energy crops has been the subject of much debate over the years as each crop must
compete for arable farmland with existing uses and of course with each other.
Energy crops are defined as plants and crops grown specifically as an energy resource. The current production of
biomass resources includes primarily agricultural byproducts, (Herbaceous crops) and forestry byproducts, (woody
biomass crops) but when agricultural crops are grown solely for their energy production, either as a biomass resource or
as a biofuel, the plant species that offers the most efficiency and the least pollution potentials are usually selected. Energy
crops grown specifically as biomass resources include energy cane, sorghum, sugar cane, eucalyptus trees, switch grass,
miscanthus, giant reeds, and leauceana lucacephala, etc. which are then planted and harvested periodically.
Dedicated energy crops can provide up to five or six times more potential energy than the amount of energy required to
grow and produce them. Energy crops can also be environmentally friendly with many of the plants grown as for biomass
resources being advantageous to the environment. Switch grass, for example, helps reduce soil erosion due to their deep
roots and provides a natural habitat for local wildlife and of course, these types of energy crops are 100% biodegradable.
Dedicated energy crops contain significant quantities of one or more of four important energy-rich components: oils,
sugars, starches, and fibre. However, moisture content of the crop is a major factor when considering the use of a
biomass feedstock, especially as energy. Biomass resources and herbaceous grasses which have lower moisture content
at the time of harvesting have a major advantage that grass energy crops have over greener woodier energy crops.

 Herbaceous Energy Crops, these are plants that have little or no woody tissue such as grasses and legumes
grown on grasslands. Generally speaking, food crops, such as maize, wheat, rice and sugarcane represent good
sources of herbaceous biomass. Some byproducts or residues of crop cultivation, such as stalks and stems, can
also be considered as herbaceous biomass.
 Switchgrass and miscanthus form the primary production of herbaceous crops as these tropical grasses tend to
grow faster than woody trees and can produce higher amounts of biomass feedstock in a much shorter period.
Generally the growth of these herbaceous plants usually lives for only a single growing season.

 Woody Energy Crops include hardwoods and softwoods form the basis of most biomass resources. The primary
source of woody energy crops comes from fast growing trees and plantations, but woody biomass can also be a
residue from forestry activities (timber waste), from wood processing (industrial wood, sawdust, wood shavings),
and end-of-life wood products (bulky waste, demolition, pallets). Woody biomass is cut into uniform, small pieces
called wood chips. Highly efficient and non-polluting burners and stoves can be designed to burn these chips for
cooking and heating.

 Lipids are water insoluble oils and fats obtained from recently living biomass. For example, soybean oil, palm oil,
rapeseed oil, waxes and animal fats and greases, etc. Renewable lipid feedstock also includes algae, bacteria’s
and other such micro-organisms. Algae are among the fastest growing types organisms in the world, with about
half of their weight being oil. The liquid biofuel, usually in the form of alcohol or ethanol, can be used to produce
biodiesel to power cars, trucks, and even aeroplanes.
 The carbon-neutrality of biomass resources made from energy crops relies on the new biomass balancing or at
least outstripping the biomass grown for food. Biomass is generally considered to be an excellent carbon sink with
biomass feedstocks planted specifically as an energy crop, are likely to play a longer term role in providing
sustainable sources for heating and power generation.
 But land availability for growing food crops is becoming more scarce, so any competition for using fertile arable
land to plant biomass energy crops should therefore be avoided. Besides, dedicated energy crops such as
grasses, bamboo, reeds and canes are more appropriate for land unsuitable for agriculture.

Biomass Resources Conclusion

Biomass feedstocks can be used in a variety of different ways to meet our ever increasing energy needs. Biomass
resources can be used in the generation of electricity, (direct or co-firing) for heating our homes, or for powering of
vehicles once converted to biofuels. The technologies used for the conversion of biomass resources into a usable energy
includes, direct combustion processes, biochemical processes, thermochemical processes and agrochemical processes.
For dedicated energy crops to be a major source of biomass, their current costs must be reduced. The development of
various crop species (agriculture and trees) that are highly productive in energy storage, resistant to climate and site
conditions, resistant to pests, and efficient in using nutrients are now being developed around the world.
Mechanized harvesting equipment once used to harvest food crops can be adapted to make it more economical to
harvest energy biomass resources that are normally too costly to collect using traditional techniques.
Biofuels produced from biomass feedstocks are now well established in the market place, with many vehicles designed to
run on these biorenewable liquid fuels such as ethanol, methanol as well as synthetic hydrocarbon fuels developed from
biomass oils extracted from rape seed, sunflowers, oil palms or from aquatic plants.
We have seen here that Biomass Resources available for energy production encompasses a wide range of plants and
materials ranging from agricultural and forest crops specifically grown for energy purposes, agricultural and forest wastes
and residues, wastes from food processing and fisheries, municipal waste including sewage sludge, as well as aquatic
plants and algae.
As biomass waste is available in a very dispersed manner, unlike fossil fuel deposits, the cost of collecting and
transporting large quantities of biomass materials for energy production can be significant since these materials by their
very nature are widely dispersed, or of low energy density. Therefore, the most attractive sources of biomass energy
today generally involves biomass resources that have been collected for other reasons, or grown and cultivated as a
dedicated energy crop.
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resources available in your home, or just to explore the advantages and disadvantages of biomass and biorenewable
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different types of biomass resources available in your home to help you save money and the environment[3].
Biomass Characteristics
Biomass fuels consist of three main segments: wood, waste, and alcohol fuels (Figure 1). Wood energy is derived from the following
sources: roundwood, used primarily in the industrial and electric utility sectors; woodfuel, used predominantly in the residential and
commercial sectors; and wood byproducts and wood waste, which are usually used in the industrial sector. Waste energy is derived
from the following sources: mass burning of garbage; conversion of garbage to refuse-derived fuel pellets for eventual burning;
collection of methane gas from landfills; and burning or anaerobic digestion of wastes. Alcohol fuel in this report refers to ethanol,
typically derived from corn and used primarily in the transportation sector.

[4]

Applications of Biomass

Biomass systems range from small stoves used in homes for heating or cooking to large power plants used by centralized
utilities to produce electricity.

In 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.
Industry and businesses use biomass for several purposes including space heating, hot water heating, and electricity
generation. Many industrial facilities, such as lumber mills, naturally produce organic waste.[5]

Biomass conversion
Thermal conversion
Thermal conversion processes use heat as the dominant mechanism to convert biomass into another chemical form. Also
known as thermal oil heating, it is a type of indirect heating in which a liquid phase heat transfer medium is heated and
circulated to one or more heat energy users within a closed loop system.[31] The basic alternatives
of combustion (torrefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification) are separated principally by the extent to which the chemical
reactions involved are allowed to proceed (mainly controlled by the availability of oxygen and conversion temperature).
Energy created by burning biomass is particularly suited for countries where the fuel wood grows more rapidly, e.g.
tropical countries. There are a number of other less common, more experimental or proprietary thermal processes that
may offer benefits such as hydrothermal upgrading (HTU) and hydroprocessing. Some have been developed for use on
high moisture content biomass, including aqueous slurries, and allow them to be converted into more convenient forms.
Some of the applications of thermal conversion are combined heat and power (CHP) and co-firing. In a typical dedicated
biomass power plant, efficiencies range from 20–27% (higher heating value basis).[32] Biomass cofiring with coal, by
contrast, typically occurs at efficiencies near those of the coal combustor (30–40%, higher heating value basis).
Chemical conversion
A range of chemical processes may be used to convert biomass into other forms, such as to produce a fuel that is more
conveniently used, transported or stored, or to exploit some property of the process itself. Many of these processes are
based in large part on similar coal-based processes, such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, methanol production, olefins
(ethylene and propylene), and similar chemical or fuel feedstocks. In most cases, the first step involves gasification, which
step generally is the most expensive and involves the greatest technical risk. [34] Biomass is more difficult to feed into a
pressure vessel than coal or any liquid. Therefore, biomass gasification is frequently done at atmospheric pressure and
causes combustion of biomass to produce a combustible gas consisting of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and traces
of methane. This gas mixture, called a producer gas, can provide fuel for various vital processes, such as internal
combustion engines, as well as substitute for furnace oil in direct heat applications.[35] Because any biomass material can
undergo gasification, this process is far more attractive than ethanol or biomass production, where only particular biomass
materials can be used to produce a fuel. In addition, biomass gasification is a desirable process due to the ease at which
it can convert solid waste (such as wastes available on a farm) into producer gas, which is a very usable fuel. [35]
Conversion of biomass to biofuel can also be achieved via selective conversion of individual components of
biomass.[36] For example, cellulose can be converted to intermediate platform chemical such
a sorbitol,[37] glucose,[38] hydroxymethylfurfural[39] etc. These chemical are then further reacted to produce hydrogen or
hydrocarbon fuels.[40]
Biomass also has the potential to be converted to multiple commodity chemicals. Halomethanes have successfully been
by produced using a combination of A. fermentans and engineered S. cerevisiae. [41] This method converts NaX salts and
unprocessed biomass such as switchgrass, sugarcane, corn stover, or poplar into halomethanes. S-adenosylmethionine
which is naturally occurring in S. cerevisiae allows a methyl group to be transferred. Production levels of 150 mg L-1H-1
iodomethane were achieved. At these levels roughly 173000 L of capacity would need to be operated just to replace the
United States’ need for iodomethane.[41] However, an advantage of this method is that it uses NaI rather than I2; NaI is
significantly less hazardous than I2. This method may be applied to produce ethylene in the future.
Other chemical processes such as converting straight and waste vegetable oils into biodiesel is transesterification
Biochemical conversion[edit]
As biomass is a natural material, many highly efficient biochemical processes have developed in nature to break down the
molecules of which biomass is composed, and many of these biochemical conversion processes can be harnessed.
Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other microorganisms to break down biomass into
gaseous or liquid fuels, such a biogas or bioethanol.[43] In most cases, microorganisms are used to perform the conversion
process: anaerobic digestion, fermentation, and composting.
Glycoside hydrolases are the enzymes involved in the degradation of the major fraction of biomass, such as
polysaccharides present in starch and lignocellulose. Thermostable variants are gaining increasing roles as catalysts in
biorefining applications in the future bioeconomy, since recalcitrant biomass often needs thermal treatment for more
efficient degradation. Some examples in today´s processing include production of monosaccharides for food applications
as well as use as carbon source for microbial conversion into metabolites such as bioethanol and chemical intermediates,
oligocaccharide production for prebiotic (nutrition) applications and production of surfactants alkyl glycoside type.[44]
Electrochemical conversion[edit]
In addition to combustion, biomass/biofuels can be directly converted to electrical energy via electrochemical
(electrocatalytic) oxidation of the material. This can be performed directly in a direct carbon fuel cell,[45] direct liquid fuel
cells such as direct ethanol fuel cell, a direct methanol fuel cell, a direct formic acid fuel cell, a L-ascorbic Acid Fuel Cell
(vitamin C fuel cell),[46] and a microbial fuel cell.[47] The fuel can also be consumed indirectly via a fuel cell system
containing a reformer which converts the biomass into a mixture of CO and H2 before it is consumed in the fuel cell.