Usable forms of biomass : applications

 Sometimes, it is used as such in its original form but more often it is transformed into modern energy
forms4such as liquid and gaseous fuels, electricity, and process heat to provide energy services needed
by rural and urban populations and also by industry.
 Some of its forms available to users are;
a) Fuel wood: Direct combustion is simplest way to obtain heat energy. Its energy density is 16–20 MJ/kg.
It can also be converted to more useful forms such as charcoal or producer gas.
b) Charcoal: Charcoal is a clean (smokeless), dry, solid fuel of black color. It has 75–80 % carbon content
and has energy density of about 30 MJ/kg. It is obtained by carbonization process of woody biomass to
achieve higher energy density per unit mass, thus making it more economical to transport.
c) Fuel pellets & Briquettes: Crop residues such as straw, rice husk etc. and waste wood are pressed to
form lumps, known as fuel pellets or briquettes and used as solid fuel.
d) Bio-diesel: Some vegetable oils, edible as well as non-edible can be used (after some chemical
processing) in pure form or its blend with petroleum diesel as fuel in a compression– ignition (C.I-diesel)
engine. Bio-diesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
 In fact Rudolf Diesel, inventor of diesel engine initially designed his engine to use peanut oil and
demonstrated its first working prototype on 10th August 1893. He believed that the utilization of
biomass fuel was the real future of his engine. In remembrance of this event, August 10th has been
declared as “International Bio-diesel day”.
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 Usable forms of biomass : applications
 The raw vegetable oil is upgraded as bio-diesel through a chemical process called trans-esterification
whereby the glycerin is separated from the animal fat or vegetable oil.
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 The process leaves behind two products—methyl (or ethyl) esters (the chemical name for bio-diesel) and
glycerin (a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products).
 Bio-diesel can be produced from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled restaurant greases. Jatropha and
Karanj are the most promising bio-diesel resources.
e) Bio-ethanol: Ethanol (C2H5OH) is a colorless liquid biofuel. Its boiling point is 78 °C and energy density is 26.9
MJ/kg. It can be derived from wet biomass containing sugars (e.g. sugarcane, sugar beet, sweet sorghum,
etc.), starches (grains, tubers such as potato, cassava, etc.) or cellulose (woody matter).
f) Bio-gas: Biogas is produced in a biogas fermenter or digester. Nitrogen rich sludge (fertilizer) is also produced as
a by product with improved sanitation as an added bonus. If raw material is cow manure, the output biogas
will contain about 50–60 % CH4, 30–40 % CO2, 5–10 % H2, 0.5–0.7 % N2 with trace amounts of O2 and H2S. Its
energy density is about 23 MJ/m3.
g) Producer gas: Woody matter such as crop residue, wood chips, bagasse (fibrous residue of sugar cane after
juice extraction), rice husk, coconut shell, etc., can be transformed to producer gas (also known as synthesis
gas, syn gas, wood gas, and water gas or blue gas) by a method known as thermal gasification of solid fuel.
 It has a typical energy density of 4–8 MJ/m3 (5–10 MJ/kg).
 The composition of gas produced depends upon the type of biomass & the design of gasifier. 
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 Biomass Resources:
 Bioma6ss resources for energy production encompass a wide spectrum of materials ranging
from silviculture (forest), agriculture (field), aquaculture (fresh and sea water) and industrial
and social activities that produce organic wastes residues (food processing, urban refuse,
etc.)
 When plants are cultivated especially for the purpose of energy, it is known as energy
farming process.

1) Forests

2) Agriculture residues

3) Energy crops

4) Aquatic plants

5) Urban waste

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Biomass Conversion Technologies:
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🠶 These energy conversion technologies may be grouped into four basic types:

(i) Physical method,

(ii) Incineration (direct combustion),

(iii) Thermo-chemical method

(iv) Biochemical method

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 Biomass Conversion Technologies:
(i) Physical method: The simplest form of physical conversion of biomass is through compression of
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combustible material. Its density is increased by reducing the volume using compression through the
processes called ‘briquetting’ and ‘pelletization’.
Pelletization: Pelletization is a process in which waste wood is pulverized, dried and forced under pressure
through an extrusion device.
 The extracted mass is in the form of pellets (rod; 5 to 10-mm dia and 12-mm long), facilitating its use in
steam power plants and gasification system.
 Pelletization reduces the moisture to about 7-10 % and increases the heat value of the biomass
Briquetting: Briquetting is brought about by compression and squeezing out moisture and breaking down
the elasticity of the wood and bark. If elasticity is not sufficiently removed, the compressed wood will
regain its pre-compression volume.
 Densification is carried out by compression under a die at high temperature and pressure. It is a
process similar to forming a wood pellet but on a larger scale.
 There are no binders involved in this process. The natural lignin in the wood binds the particles of wood
together to form a solid piece.

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 Biomass Conversion Technologies:
(ii) Incineration (direct combustion): Incineration means direct combustion of biomass for immediate
useful h1e0
at. The heat (usually in the form of steam) produced are either used to generate electricity or
provide the heat for industrial process, space heating, cooking or district heating.
 Furnaces and boilers have been developed for large scale burning of various types of biomass such as
wood, waste wood, black liquid from pulp industry, food industry waste, and MSW (municipal solid
waste).
 The moisture content in the biomass and wide range of composition tends to decrease the efficiency
of conversion. However the economic advantage of cogeneration makes it attractive for adoption.
(iii) Thermo-chemical method: The basic thermo-chemical process to convert biomass into more
valuable and/or convenient product is known as pyrolysis. Biomass is heated either in absence of oxygen
or by partial combustion of some of the biomass in restricted air or oxygen supply.
 Pyrolysis can process all forms of organic materials including rubber and plastics, which cannot be
handled by other methods.
 The products are three types of fuels, usually: a gas mixture (H2, CO, CO2, CH4 and N2), oil like liquid
(water soluble phase including acetic acid, acetone, methanol and non-aqueous phase including oil
and tar) and a nearly pure carbon char.
 The distribution of these products depends upon the type of feedstock, the temperature and pressure
during the process and its duration and the heating rate.
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 Biomass Conversion Technologies:
 High temperature pyrolysis (~1000 °C) maximizes the gaseous product. This process is known as
ga1
si1fication.
 Low temperature pyrolysis (up to 600 °C) maximizes the char output. The process has been used for
centuries for production of charcoal. This process is known as carbonization.
 Liquid product is obtained through catalytic liquefaction process. Liquefaction is a relatively low
temperature (250–450 °C), high-pressure (270 atm) thermo-chemical conversion of wet biomass, usually
with high hydrogen partial pressure and also a catalyst to enhance the rate of reaction and/or to
improve the selectivity of the process.
(iv) Biochemical method: The process makes use of metabolic action of microbial organism on biomass
to produce liquid and gaseous fuel. There are two major biochemical processes, Ethanol Fermentation
and Anaerobic Fermentation.
Ethanol Fermentation: Alcoholic Fermentation is the decomposition in absence of air of simple hexose
sugars (sugars containing six carbon atoms per molecule, i.e. C6H12O6) in aqueous solution by action of
enzyme (a natural catalyst) present in yeast, in acidic conditions (pH value 4 to 5).

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 Biomass Conversion Technologies:
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Anaerobic Fermentation (Anaerobic Digestion): This process converts decaying wet biomass and animal
wastes into biogas through decomposition process by the action of anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that live
and grow in absence of oxygen).

 Carbon present in biomass may be divided between fully oxidized CO2 and fully reduced CH4.

 The biomass material in the form of water slurry is digested by the bacteria anaerobically for several
days in an airtight container.

 The reactions are slightly exothermic and small amount of heat (equivalent to 1.5 MJ per kg dry
digestible material) is also generated that helps in maintaining favorable temperature.

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 References:
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🠶 B.H. Khan, Non-conventional Energy Resources, 3rd ed., New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education (India)
Pvt. Ltd., 20017, 2006. (chapter:8, page:354-403)

🠶 Rai G.D, Non-Conventional Energy Sources, 4th ed., New Delhi: Khanna Publishers, 2010.
(chapter-7:page.no:311-435)
14  Lecture Outcomes

o Able to understand usable forms of biomass: applications

o Able to understand biomass resources

o Able to understand types of Biomass Conversion Technologies

o Able to understand about biogas & bio-fuel

Thank you