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BIOMASS ENERGY
Learning Outcome: 1

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

 Fully comprehend the significance of energy to sociocultural growth
 Explain the significant role played by solid biomass over the decades
 Enlist the imminent challenges associated with the utilization of solid
biomass as
 Discuss terms used in biomass technologies such as biogas, biodiesel,
aerobic and anaerobic digestions, co-firing, cogeneration, pyrolysis etc.

Overview:
 Energy from Solid Biomass
 Setbacks of Biofuel as Alternative Source of Energy
 The Earth’s Biomass. Types of Biomass
 Conversion to Energy and Fuels
 Biomass Energy Production Technologies
 A Biomass Economy
2.0 Energy from Solid Biomass
Solid biomasses are derivable from matter that contains organic compounds
(majorly crops and crop residues) and the energy obtained from them is
referred to as Bioenergy. Any biomass based energy process begins with the
capture of sunlight and production of a chemical compound. This complicated 2

step, called photosynthesis, leads basically to glucose. Subsequent biochemical

transformations result in the creation of a very large number of compounds,
some of very great commercial value.

However, to the engineer interested in extracting fuels from biomass, the

products of importance are glucose and its polymers - starch and cellulose -
other sugars (some of which form hemicellulose), and lignin.

Another source of bioenergy is the Biofuel. While the biomass is largely in solid
form, the biofuel are usage in the liquid form and are also derived from
matters that are made of biological compounds.

Biofuels consist of mainly ethanol, an alcohol made from plant material, while
the plant material from which the ethanol is produced makes up biomass. A
gallon (3.78 litres) of ethanol contains about 67 percent of the energy supplied
by a gallon of gasoline.

Biodiesel is also another form of biofuel. Biodiesel, what is it? Biodiesel is a

renewable and clean bio-energy that is produced from animal fats, vegetable
oil and micro-algae oil. Hence, it is a viable alternative source to petroleum-
based diesel fuels being bio-degradable, non-toxic and with environmentally
friendly emission characteristics. Biodiesel contains a different mixture of
hydrocarbons than ethanol, so has a different quantity of energy: A gallon of
biodiesel contains about 86 percent of the energy supplied by a gallon of
gasoline. Moreso, biodiesel as reported, on Crimson Renewable Energy LP, is
more efficient than conventional diesel in its total life cycle or ‘well-to-wheels’
total petroleum consumption.
Biofuels became the primary focus of the alternative fuel industry in the
1990s. As interest in new fuels and renewable energy sources bloomed, the
worldwide investment in biofuels increased from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion
on 2005, and it topped $100 billion in 2010.

However, the exploration of biofuels as alternative fuel created 3

unprecedented effects across the globe with an increase in corn prices—the

main source of ethanol fuel—bigger than any increase farmers had seen since
World War II. Farmers seize the opportunity to become rich.

2.1 Setbacks of Biofuel as Alternative Source of Energy

 Corn crops were diverted to ethanol refineries rather than food
production.
 The increased demand for corn raises world corn prices.
 Extra land planted with corn makes the supply of other crops, such as
soybeans, decline.
 Soybean prices rose up.
 Farmers already growing soybeans in developing countries decided to
increase their crop to take advantage of soya’s rising value.
 The farmers turned pastureland into cultivation and thereby displacing
ranchers.
 Ranchers removed forests for more pastureland.
 Forests that disappeared in the name of biofuels equated to a loss of
habitat for endangered species.
 The fallen trees additionally added large amounts of carbon dioxide
(CO2) to air that is already polluted as the ranchers burnt whatever
timber they could not sell.
 Impoverished regions that could not grow plentiful harvests of any kind
became victims to skyrocketing food prices.
It must be emphasized here that, a renewable energy that drastically impacts
on the survival of man (food and pollution) is not a sustainable one.
Researches on the sustainability of biofuels have continued. While
environmentalists and some economists have identified the cautionary
outcomes to biofuel production, biofuel research groups are unrelenting in
their research works.

2.2 The Earth’s Biomass 4

Biologists think of biomass as the dry weight of all of the organic matter
produced on Earth by plants and photosynthetic microbes. In environmental
science, biomass is total plant materials but also animal wastes that can be
burned as fuel.

Biomass is the energy-storage form for all living things in food chains. The
chemical energy held in biomass serves each member of a food chain. For
example, plant biomass in the form of carbohydrates provides energy to
grazing animals; the biomass in these animals in the form of fats, proteins, and
carbohydrates acts as the energy source for predators higher on the food
chain. When animals produce waste or when they die, the biomass furnishes
energy for microbes and for scavenger animals such as condors. Biomass
therefore plays a central role in the Earth’s nutrient recycling.

Activities on Earth convert biomass into energy in three different biological

methods and one chemical method. In biology, microbes degrade biomass
into simpler compounds with the release of heat and gases. The first microbial
method is fermentation, which converts biomass to alcohols and other end
products such as CO2. The second microbial method entails anaerobic
reactions, which are reactions that occur in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic
reactions produce mainly methane gas. The third biological method,
respiration, is used by animals and some microbes. In respiration, an organism
consumes oxygen as it converts sugars to energy and then releases CO2 with
other end products. The chemical method that occurs on Earth for releasing
biomass’s energy is combustion. A lightning strike may ignite a forest and
cause the burning of dead leaves and branches as well as living trees. This
burning converts the compounds making up biomass into different
compounds with the release of heat energy. Making use of the energy that
can be liberated from biomass through combustion is the basis of biomass
energy production.
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2.3 Types of Biomass
Different types of biomass can be used for making energy in biomass power
plants. When used in this manner for commercial or home energy production,
the biomass materials are called feedstock. Feedstock originates from the
following sources: agricultural crop waste (called bagasse), horticulture waste,
wood and charcoal, pulp processing sludge, municipal solid waste (MSW),
wastewater treatment solids, animal waste, and landfill waste. Sometimes
used vegetable oils and animal fats also fit into the category of energy-
producing biomass. Biomass energy offers an advantage because it can be
almost any solid material that when burned releases a usable form of energy.
The main types of biomass used throughout the world differ in source so they
contain various constituents, which make them more or less efficient as energy
sources. Some of the variations in biomass are listed in the following table.
Civilization has used wood as its main biomass energy source for hundreds of
centuries.
Table 2.1: Types of Solid Biomass
Solid Biomass Possible Constituents
Agricultural waste Leaves, straw, vines, fruits, animal manure, shells
Wood Chips, logging waste, branches and treetops,
charcoal
Landfill waste Paper, household garbage, restaurant wastes, fabrics
Biomass stores energy as chemical energy that is held mainly in the bonds
between carbon and hydrogen. Combustion releases this energy in the form of
heat by the following process:
Biomass Fuel + Oxygen + Heat to start the reaction  Exhaust + Heat
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor
destroyed. In combustion of biomass, the energy created by the reaction
equals the energy held by the constituents going into the reaction. The first
law of thermodynamics therefore explains biomass energy production.
Biomass power plants, sometimes called waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, 6

convert the unusable form of energy held in biomass to a usable form. These
usable forms may be heat, electricity, fuels for powering vehicles, or fuels for
heating or powering buildings.

2.4 Conversion to Energy and Fuels

The unlimited supply of biomass makes it a viable renewable energy. Trees
and plants regrow, animals give birth to young animals, and people continue
to produce wastes. Biomass also offers several options as to how it can be used
and the end products of its use. The following table describes predominant
technologies for converting biomass into energy and the end products of its
use:
Table 2.1: Solid Biomass Technologies
Supporting Process Description Feedstock Products
Technology
Anaerobic Biochemical Microbial Manure, Methane
digestion digestion on wastewater
organic matters sludge
in the absence of
oxygen
Aerobic Biochemical Microbial Crops, straw, Ethanol
digestion digestion wood, pulp
of sugars in the
presence of air,
followed by
distillation
Direct Thermochemical Burning agricultural Heat,
combustion waste, wood steam
electricity
Biodiesel Chemical Conversion to Seeds, Biodiesel
production new animal fat
Hydrocarbons
Pyrolysis Thermochemical High- Agricultural Synthetic 7
temperature waste, oil,
treatment in wood, MSW charcoal
absence
of oxygen
Gasification Thermochemical Heating or Agricultural Heating
anaerobic waste, gas
digestion wood, MSW
Alcohol Biochemical microbial Agricultural Ethanol,
fermentation digestion of waste, methanol
organic matter wood, paper

2.5 Biomass Energy Production Technologies

Biomass energy production includes two technologies that will increase the
overall efficiency of energy production.
2.5.1 Co-combustion / Co-firing: It involves the substitution of biomass
matters with the coal being combusted in a coal fired plant. Co-combustion
has the potential to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases (CO2, NOx, SO2)
released from the cool-fired power plant depending on the biomass
composition.
2.5.2 Cogeneration: involves the simultaneous production of more than one
fuel type, such as heat and electricity. Most cogeneration plants in operation
produce heat and electricity.

2.6 A Biomass Economy

The burning of biomass for energy production helps remove excess wastes
from the following industries: agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and
construction. It also helps destroy wastewater treatment plant solids and
landfill contents, two materials that would otherwise have little value. By
these activities, biomass energy production plays a role in the world’s biomass
economy. Biomass economy refers to an accounting method for keeping track
of the Earth’s carbon compounds. This involves estimating where carbon
compounds are increasing and where they are decreasing. Before the
industrial revolution, the atmosphere contained about 280 parts per million
(ppm) of CO2. As industrialization grew, machinery burned coal, natural gas, 8

and oil, and the emissions from combustion drifted into the air. By the 1950s,
CO2 levels had reached 315 ppm; in March 2009 the atmosphere held 388.79
ppm. The CO2 level increases about 2 ppm per year. CO2 increases indicate
that other greenhouse gases are also on the rise. Because greenhouses gases
hold warmth in the atmosphere, the Earth’s atmosphere is warming. In the
IPCC report Climate Change 2007, scientists estimated that by the end of the
21st century global temperature will have increased 7.2°F (4°C).

The pros and con of energy production from biomass are listed below:
Pros
 Removes accumulation of solid waste from the environment
 Large supply
 Makes use of otherwise unused timber, pulp and paper, and
agricultural wastes
 Moderate to low costs
 Reduced CO2 emissions
Cons
 Possible environmental damage from cutting forests
 Some emissions depending on composition and burning method
 Burning emits smoke and particles into the air

Conclusively, biological environmental wastes within our cities would cease to

exist but become a source of energy and revenue generation to individuals
and organizations that fully comprehend the waste-to- energy technology of
solid biomass. It is a technology that can be easily adopted for home use
(cooking gas production) with little initial and operating costs.
 Assignment #2
a) Mention two other sources of energy besides fossil fuel and discuss their
sustainability indices
b) Differentiate between anaerobic and aerobic digestion as technologies 9

for converting biomass into energy and their respective products.