Biomass Report

BIOMASS ENERGY

The topic where GREEN means CLEAN…

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Fire, unquestionably the most important discovery in the history of mankind, it was discovered thanks to the accidental combustion of wood. Fire has illuminated, heated, protected and fed mankind for thousands of years. Briefly, fired fostered the birth of civilization. Wood, on the other hand, remained the most widely used raw material for many centuries, not only to burn wood, but also as building material. The invention of the steam engine allowed mankind to obtain mechanic energy from the combustion of wood, whereas up to the 18th century wind and water where the only mechanic energy sources available. During the Industrial Revolution wood started to become scarce owing to the massive deforestation carried out to produce energy. Mankind had to look for alternative energy sources and found them in coal and oil, which at the time were abundant albeit not renewable. Only recently, energy need and the possible disappearance of fossil fuels and the pollution produced by the combustion led man to “re-discover” the usefulness of wood and biomass as energy sources.

Brief history of Biomass

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Biomass is any organic matter, wood, crops, seaweed, animal wastes that can be used as an energy source. Biomass is probably our oldest source of energy after the sun. For thousands of years, people have burned wood to heat their homes and cook their food

What is Biomass?

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How did Biomass gets its energy?

Biomass gets its energy from the sun. All organic matter contains stored energy from the sun. During a process called photosynthesis, sunlight gives plants the energy they need to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars. These sugars, called carbohydrates, supply plants and the animals that eat plants with energy. Foods rich in carbohydrates are a good source of energy for the human body. Biomass is a renewable energy source because its supplies are not limited. We can always grow trees and crops, and waste will always exist.

Bioenergy is a renewable energy source made from biomass (which is organic materials such as plants and animals).

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Bioenergy cycle

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Did you Know?

Worldwide, Biomass is the fourth largest energy resource after Coal, Oil, and Natural gas - estimated at about 14% of global primary energy (and much higher in many developing countries).

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Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon deposits, such as petroleum, coal, or natural gas, derived from organic matter from a previous geologic time. They are essentially fossilized biomass and differ from present-day biomass in that they come from organic matter created millions of years ago, which has been stored below ground. In other words, the key difference between biomass and fossil fuels is age!

Fossil fuels contain carbon that was removed from the atmosphere, under different environmental conditions, millions of years ago. When burned, this carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Since the carbon being released is from ancient deposits, and new fossil fuels take millions of years to form, burning fossil fuels adds more carbon to the atmosphere than is being removed.

Difference between Fossil fuel and Biomass?

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Biomass, on the other hand, absorbs atmospheric carbon while it grows and returns it into the atmosphere when it is consumed, all in a relatively short amount of time. Because of this, biomass utilization creates a closed-loop carbon cycle. For example, you can grow a tree over the course of ten or twenty years, cut it down, burn it, release its carbon back into the atmosphere and immediately start growing another tree in its place. With certain fast-growing biomass crops such as switch grass, this process can occur even faster.

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Natural Carbon Cycle

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Commercial Carbon cycle

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Biomass conversion process to useful energy

Thermal conversion processes use heat as the dominant mechanism to convert biomass into another chemical form.

Thermal conversion

Chemical conversion

Chemical conversionBiochemical conversion

Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other microorganisms to break down biomass.

Chemical conversion used catalysts to transform biomass into other type of fuels which are more convenient to be used in applications. In most cases, the first step involves gasification, which step generally is the most expensive and involves the greatest technical risk.

Biochemical conversion

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Types of Biomass

ƒ Wood and Agricultural Products

Solid Waste

Landfill Gas and Biogas

Alcohol fuels

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The term Biomass was first introduced by Congress in the Power plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-620) as a type of alternate fuel. Biomass was first defined in the Energy Security Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-294, as “any organic matter which is available on a renewable basis, including agricultural crops and agricultural wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, animal wastes, municipal wastes, and aquatic plants.”

Did you Know?

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Type of Biomass that is home grown like wood - example logs, chips, bark, and sawdust. This also includes agricultural waste products like fruit pits and corn cobs. This accounts for about 46 percent of biomass energy in US.

Wood and Agricultural Products

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Use of Wood and Agricultural Products

Wood and wood waste, along with agricultural waste, are used to generate electricity. Much of the electricity is used by the industries making the waste; it is not distributed by utilities, it is cogenerated. Paper mills and saw mills use much of their waste products to generate steam and electricity for their use. However, since they use so much energy, they need to buy additional electricity from utilities. Increasingly, timber companies and companies involved with wood products are seeing the benefits of using their lumber scrap and sawdust for power generation. This saves disposal costs and, in some areas, may reduce the companies’ utility bills. In fact, the pulp and paper industries rely on biomass to meet 63 percent of their energy needs. Other industries that use biomass include lumber producers, furniture manufacturers, agricultural businesses like nut and rice growers, and liquor producers.

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Biomass briquettes are made from agricultural waste and are a replacement for fossil fuel such as oil or coal, and can be used to heat boilers in manufacturing plants, and also have applications in developing countries. Biomass briquettes are a renewable source of energy and avoid adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere.

Briquettes and Briquetting machine

Briquetting Machine is the machine that transforms powdery or granular product into a larger more convenient size. This is accomplished by compacting the product with a roller press sometimes in the presence of a binder material. The briquettes can be produced with high or low pressure and can undergo mechanical or thermal treatment according to the characteristics of the processed material, the binder used and the desired end product. 

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Solid Waste

Solid waste Solid refers to non-soluble material such as agricultural refuse, industrial waste, mining residues, demolition waste, municipal garbage or even sewage sludge. Most of these kind of wastes cannot be recycled or rehabilitated for further use.

Municipal solid waste is the solid waste, or garbage, collected from the residents of a city. It is composed of mostly paper, plastic, food scraps and other household wastes.

ƒMunicipal Solid Waste

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Use of Solid Waste

Burning trash turns waste into a usable form of energy. One ton (2,000 pounds) of garbage contains about as much heat energy as 500 pounds of coal. Garbage is not all biomass; perhaps half of its energy content comes from plastics, which are made from petroleum and natural gas.

Power plants that burn garbage for energy are called waste-to-energy plants. These plants generate electricity much as coal - red plants do, except that combustible garbage - not coal - is the fuel used to fire their boilers. Making electricity from garbage costs more than making it from coal and other energy sources. The main advantage of burning solid waste is that it reduces the amount of garbage dumped in landfills by 60 to 90 percent, which in turn reduces the cost of landfill disposal. It also makes use of the energy in the garbage, rather burying it in a landfill, where it remains unused.

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Incineration

Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials.

Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash flue gas, and heat. The ash is mostly formed by the inorganic constituents of the waste, and may take the form of solid lumps or particulates carried by the flue gas. The flue gases must be cleaned of gaseous and particulate pollutants before they are dispersed into the atmosphere. In some cases, the heat generated by incineration can be used to generate electric power.

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Biomass gasification

Biomass gasification is a process of incomplete combustion of biomass resulting in production of combustible gases consisting of a mixture of Carbon monoxide (CO), Hydrogen (H2) and traces of Methane (CH4), which is called producer gas. Gasification is a two-stage reaction consisting of oxidation and reduction processes.  These processes occur under sub-stoichiometric conditions of air with biomass.

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Biogas and Landfill gas

Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. It is a renewable energy source, like solar and wind energy. Furthermore, biogas can be produced from regionally available raw materials and recycled waste and is environmentally friendly.

Biogas is produced by the anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage ,municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops. Biogas comprises primarily methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), moisture and siloxanes.

Landfill gas is also a type of biogas produced from landfills(dumpsites).

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Used of Biogas and Landfill gas

Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a good energy source. Most gas furnaces and stoves use methane supplied by utility companies

Methane can also be produced using energy from agricultural and human wastes. Biogas digesters are airtight containers or pits lined with steel or bricks. Waste put into the containers is fermented without oxygen to produce a methane-rich gas. This gas can be used to produce electricity, or for cooking and lighting.It is a safe and clean burning gas, producing little carbon monoxide and no smoke.

Biogas digesters are inexpensive to build and maintain. They can be built as family-sized or community-sized units. They need moderate temperatures and moisture for the fermentation process to occur. For developing countries, biogas digesters may be one of the best answers to many of their energy needs. They can help reverse the rampant deforestation caused by wood-burning, reduce air pollution, fertilize over-used fields, and produce clean, safe energy for rural communities.

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Biogas Fermentation

Biogas fermentation is a series of processes where microorganisms break down biodegradable materials (usually in the absence of oxygen), thus it is often attributed as anaerobic digestion. The break-down of these biodegradable materials (such as biomass) will produce simpler molecules, where some of these products are in the form of bio-gas. The detailed mechanism of how biogas fermentation occurs depends on the microorganisms involved, as well as types of feedstock (biomass) used and operating conditions (temperature, pH, etc).

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Did you Know?

Humans can produce Methane gas. It is made when food is broken down in the large intestine, and we release these gas in terms of FART!!!

The major components of the FART by percentage are:

Nitrogen - 20% - 90% Hydrogen - 0% - 50% Carbon Dioxide - 10% - 30% Oxygen - 0% - 10% Methane - 0% - 10%

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Biofuel

A biofuel is a fuel that uses energy from a carbon fixation. These fuels are produced from living organisms. Examples of this carbon fixation are plants and microalgae. These fuels are made from a biomass conversion. 

There are two kinds of biofuel namely:

Ethanol

Biodiesel

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Ethanol

Ethanol is an alcohol fuel (ethyl alcohol) made by fermenting the sugars and starches found in plants and then distilling them. Any organic material containing cellulose, starch, or sugar can be made into ethanol. More than 90 percent of the ethanol produced in the United States comes from corn. New technologies are producing ethanol from cellulose in woody fibers from trees, grasses, and crop residues. Today nearly all of the gasoline sold in the U.S. contains 10 percent ethanol and is known as E10. In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the introduction of E15 (15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline) for use in passenger vehicles from model year 2001 and newer. Fuel containing 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline (E85) qualifies as an alternative fuel. There are about seven million flexible fuel vehicles (FFV) on the road that can run efficiently on E85. However, only six percent of these vehicles use E85.

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Used of Ethanol

Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a gasoline additive to increase octane and improve vehicle emissions. Bioethanol is widely used in the USA and in Brazil.

Vehicle maintenance for ethanol-powered vehicles is similar to those using gasoline. Oil changes, in fact, are needed less frequently. Due to its detergent properties, ethanol tends to keep fuel lines and injectors cleaner than gasoline. Because ethanol has a tendency to absorb moisture, using ethanol fuel can help reduce the possibility of fuel-line freeze- up during the winter.

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Biodiesel

Biodiesel is a fuel made by chemically reacting alcohol with vegetable oils, animal fats, or greases, such as recycled restaurant grease. Most biodiesel today is made from soybean oil. Biodiesel is most often blended with petroleum diesel in ratios of two percent (B2), five percent (B5), or 20 percent (B20). It can also be used as neat (pure) biodiesel (B100). Biodiesel fuels are compatible with and can be used in unmodified diesel engines with the existing fueling infrastructure. It is one of the fastest growing alternative transportation fuels in the U.S. Biodiesel contains virtually no sulfur, so it can reduce sulfur levels in the nation’s diesel fuel supply, even compared with today’s low sulfur fuels. While removing sulfur from petroleum-based diesel results in poor lubrication, biodiesel is a superior lubricant and can reduce the friction of diesel fuel in blends of only one or two percent. This is an important characteristic because the Environmental Protection Agency now requires that sulfur levels in diesel fuel be 97 percent lower than they were prior to 2006.

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Used of Biodiesel

Biodiesel can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles. Biodiesel exceeds diesel in octane number (performance rating of diesel fuel), resulting in superior ignition. Biodiesel has a higher flashpoint, making it more versatile where safety is concerned. Horsepower, acceleration, and torque are comparable to diesel. Biodiesel has the highest Btu content of any alternative fuel, though it is slightly less than that of diesel. This might have a small impact on vehicle range and fuel economy.

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Did you Know?

The discovery of fermentation is attributed to the Egyptians, who also invented baking ovens

Ale(beer) is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced, dating back to at least the 5th millennium BC and recorded in the written history of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

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Environmental Impact of Biomass

The most obvious environmental benefit of biomass is the displacement of fossil fuel usage, and the corresponding reduction in air pollution and acid rain.  Another beneficial environmental impact is the recycling of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The environmental impact of biomass systems, however, can be negative as the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere by the photosynthesis of biomass becomes less than the amount produced during combustion and energy production. 

Deforestation is vital to the harvest of woody feedstock and its sustainability. However, clear-cutting of trees leads to massive deforestation and erosion across the United States and other parts of the world where clear-cutting occurs.  Also, terrestrial biomass is the largest sink known for the removal of atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis, and by removing plant biomass for fuel, we decrease the CO2 fixation capacity of the earth.