Energy Engineering- ChE-308

BIOMASS

Prepared by:

Dr. Hirra Anjum

 What is Biomass?
o Biomass, a renewable energy source, is
biological material from living organisms, wood,
waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels.
o Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to
generate electricity or produce heat.
o Recent organic matter originally derived from
plants as a result of the photosynthetic
conversion process or from animals, which is
destined to be utilized as a store of chemical
energy to provide heat, electricity, or transport
fuels.
 Biomass history
o Biomass is probably our oldest source of energy
after the sun. It gets its energy from the sun. All
organic matter contains stored energy from the
sun, during a process called photosynthesis.
o Biomass in the form of fire wood and charcoal was
the main source of energy, but these were replaced
by coal and oil In the 20th century.
o In the 21st century, however biomass shows signs
of being revived of following characteristics, it is
renewable, storable, substitutive, abundant and
carbon neutral.
o The total biomass of the world is 1800 billion tons
on the ground and 4 billion tons in the ocean.
o Biomass is a renewable energy source because
its supplies are not limited, we can always grow
trees and crops and waste will always exist.
o Biomass is the only source of fuel for domestic
use in many developing countries.
o Wood remains the largest biomass energy
source today.
Where does biomass come from
Biomass is obtained from any plant,
human or animal derived organic
matter.

Wood from trees, agricultural

crops, wood factory waste, and
the construction industry

Burnt wood from forest fires

Animals and animal droppings

▪ Municipal solid waste

▪ Manufacturing waste
▪ Land fill gas
 Biomass composition
• Biomass comes in a million physical forms
• However, it is composed typically of
– Cellulose - 49.5%
– Hemicelluloses - 24.8%
– Lignin - 24.9%
– Extractives - 0.5%
– Ash - 0.3%
• Most biomass can be represented by
CH1.4O0.6
 Conversion of biomass waste into useable fuel
Gasification
Exposing a solid fuel to high
temperatures and limited oxygen
produces biogas.
Pyrolysis
Heating the biomass can produce
pyrolysis oil and phenol oil leaving
charcoal.
Digestion
Bacteria, in an oxygen-starved
environment can produce methane.

Biomass to Biogas
Fermentation
o Bio-material that is used to manufacture Ethanol and
Biodiesel by an anaerobic biological process in
which sugars are converted to alcohol by the action
of micro-organisms, usually yeast.

Solid Fuel Combustion

o Direct combustion of solid matter.
Conversion to different forms
Factors that influence the choice of conversion
process are:
• The type and quantity of biomass feed stock
• The desired form of the energy
• Environmental standards
• Economic conditions
 Thermo Chemical Conversion Process E
N
Heat
D
Direct Steam
combustion U
Electricity S
Biomass Conversion T E
process
feedstock E S
 Producer Gas
C
Gasification (Low or medium E
H
Btu) N
N
Wood O E
Agricultural waste Thermo- L R
Organic waste chemical O Pyrolysis Synthetic fuel
oil, G
G
Charcoal Y
I
or
E
S Methanol P
Production Methanol
R
O
D
U
C
T
 GASIFICATION
• Gasification is the conversion of biomass into a combustible gas mixtures at
high temperatures, 800-9000 degree Celsius.
• The low calorific value gas produced (about 4-6 MJ/Nm3) can be burnt directly
or used as a fuel for gas engines and gas turbines
• The product gas can be used as a feed stock in the production of chemicals
(e.g. methanol)

Biogas energy
can serve as a
feedstock for
electricity
generation or a
building block
for chemicals.
 Pyrolysis
• Pyrolysis is the conversion of biomass to
liquid (termed bio-oil or bio-crude),solid and
gaseous fractions by heating the biomass in
the absence of air to around 5000C .
• The process of Pyrolysis gives three groups
of products.
– a solid – (Known as char or charcoal)
– a liquid – (known as pyroligeneous acid or oil
which content a mixture of chemicals)
– a mixture of gases – (CO, H2, N2)
 Pyrolysis
Heat is used to chemically convert biomass
to bio-oil.
Pyrolysis Oil, is easier to store and transport than solid
biomass material and can be burned like petroleum to
generate electricity.
Pyrolysis oil is a synthetic fuel under investigation as
substitute for petroleum. It is extracted by biomass to
liquid technology of destructive distillation from dried
biomass in a reactor at temperature of about 500°C
with subsequent cooling. Pyrolytic oil is a kind of tar
and normally contains too high levels of oxygen to be a
hydrocarbon.

Phenol Oil, a chemical used to make wood adhesives,

molded plastics and foam insulation. Wood adhesives
are used to glue together plywood and other
composite wood products.
 Anaerobic digestion
• Biochemical process in which particular
kinds of bacteria digest biomass in an
oxygen-free environment.
• Several different types of bacteria work
together to break down complex organic
wastes in stages, finally resulting in the
production of “Biogas."
Anaerobic digestion (Contd..)

Biogas Production
– Biogas is mixture of methane (50 - 70%)
and carbon dioxide with traces of
hydrogen sulphide and water
– Combustible gas
(calorific value = 16 - 20 MJ/m³).
 Biogas Production Process
• Mixing of organic matter (such as animal
dung) with some water
• Placed this mixture (Slurry) in a leak proof
container (called a digester) and left to
ferment.
• After several days at suitable
temperatures, sufficient methane will have
formed to make a combustible gas.
 Biogas Feedstock
• Any organic material can be used
• Production rate depend on type of feed
stock used.
– Woody materials such as straw are very
difficult to digest
– Animal dung digests readily
• Pretreatment may be needed for some
materials ( Chopping etc.)
Biogas Plant
 Working
• Manure collection and handling
• Pretreatment
• Anaerobic digestion
• By product recovery
• Biogas handling
• Biogas use
Flowsheet of Process
Main Steps of Manufacturing
• Hydrolysis
• Digestion
• Methanogenesis
 Hydrolysis
• During Hydrolysis long-chain molecules of
protein, carbohydrates and fat polymers are
broken down to monomers.
• Different specialized bacteria produce number
of specific enzymes that catalyze
decomposition.
• Proteins, simple sugars and starch hydrolyse
easily under anaerobic conditions .
• Other polymeric carbon compounds slowly
decompose but lignin decompose under
anaerobic conditions.
 Digestion
Decomposition of organic matter by anaerobic bacteria in an oxygen-starved environment.

Heating Plant, Lior International

Dranco plant for anaerobic

digestion of biowaste, Ghent,
Belgium

Anaerobic digesters compost (or "digest")

Lemvig centralised biogas organic waste in a machine that limits
access to oxygen encouraging the
plant, Denmark, producing
generation of methane and carbon dioxide
about 4 million m3/year of gas by microbes in the waste. This digester gas
is then burned as fuel to make electricity.
 Methanogenesis

• The last step in production of methane is undertaken by

Methanogenic bacteria or Methanogens.
• They belong to kingdom called Archae, belonging to eukaryotes.
• Two groups are involved:
• One group degrades acetic acid to methane.
• Second group produces methane from Carbon dioxide and
hydrogen.
• In stable conditions 70% methane comes from acetic acid, 30%
from CO2 and H2.
 Process Parameters

• Anaerobic environment
• Temperature: psychrophiles 0-20, mesophiles 15-45,
thermophiles 40-65.
• Acidity pH: 6.5 - 8 is average,,, 7.2 the best,,
• Substrate
 Fermentation
Unlike other renewable energy sources,
biomass can be converted directly into
liquid fuels—biofuels— for our
transportation needs (cars, trucks,
buses, airplanes, and trains).
The two most common types of
biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel.

Ethanolis an alcohol, created by

fermenting biomass high in
carbohydrates. It is used as a fuel
additive to cut down carbon monoxide
and other emissions.

Biodieselis made by combining alcohol

with vegetable oil, animal fat or other
recycled cooking grease and is also an
additive to reduce emissions. When pure,
biodiesel is a renewable alternative fuel
for diesel engines.
 Fermentation
• In a balanced bacterial process approximately 50% of monomers and
long chain fatty acids (LCFA) are broken down to acetic acid.
• 20% is converted to Carbondioxide and Hydrogen gas while remaining
30% is converted to short chain volatile fatty acids (VFA).
• If there is an imbalance, relative level of VFAs will increase risk of
accumulation and process “Turning sour”.
• A steady degradation is crucial and often limiting factor for biogas
process.
 Fermentation (Contd..)
Aerobic Fermentation
– Aerobic Fermentation (Ethanol Production)
– Fermentation takes place in the presence of air.

Ethanol feedstocks
– Sugars, from sugar cane, sorghum, molasses,
fruits and whey (residue from cheese production)
– Starch, from grains (rice, maize etc.), potato
– Cellulose, from wood agricultural residues.
 Schemetic diagram of ethanol production
Natural Sugars:
Sugar Cane Crush Residues Process heat, by products.
Fruit

Starches: Yeast fermentation

Easy Hydrolysis Sugar
Grain (barley) to 10% ethanol
Root (cassava)

Cellulose: General
Difficult
Wood Distillation to combustion Fuel
90% ethanol

Purtification to Petroleum
anhydrous additive or
alcohol substitute
 Fermentation (Contd..)
Ethanol production processes.
– Feedstock collection
– Pretreatment to yield sugar
– Fermentation
– Distillation
– Waste treatment (Anaerobic
fermentation to methane)
 Solid Fuel Combustion
Direct combustion of solid matter where the
biomass is fed into a furnace where it is Wood
burned. The heat is used to boil water and the
energy in the steam is used to turn turbines
and generators.

accumulated by Naomi F. Miller,

University of Pennsylvania Museum
March 2004

Animal Dung

Eagar Biomass Plant, Springerville, Arizona

Photo by Photosmith

Peat is an accumulation of partially

decayed vegetable matter. Peat
forms in wetlands, bogs, moors,
mires and fens
 A Simple Pyrolysis Experiment
• Pyrolysis (heating biomass to ~ 450 ºC)
produces gas, oil and charcoal
• Here’s a simple experiment
Woodgas flame
Test tube

Biomass

Bunsen flame
Oil Drops
 Pure Pyrolysis
• Pure pyrolysis can be represented as...
• CH1.4O0.6 ➔ 0.4 C (charcoal) + C.6H1.4O.6
(pyrolysis oil and gas)
• This requires an external heat source like
the Bunsen flame
• There’s a better way to make gas...
 THE SIMPLE MATCH: Flaming
Combustion
• Pyrolysis, gasification and combustion are all
visible in the simple match. Please look
CLOSELY at one at your first opportunity
Processes In The Match
 Flaming Combustion
• If you have lots of air passing over a small
amount of wood, it will burn completely to CO2
and H2O in “flaming combustion”, as in the
match
CH1.4O0.6 + 1.05 (O2 + 3.76N2)➔CO2 + .7H2O

• If you have insufficient air passing through a

mass of burning wood, you have “flaming
pyrolysis” producing CO and H2, the basis of
biomass gasification
 Flaming Pyrolysis
• During gasification, air (or oxygen) is
passed through a bed of burning biomass
• The large excess of fuel causes the
following reaction
• CH1.4O0.6 + Air ➔ Charcoal, CO, CO2, H2,
H2O
• The relative fractions depend on the
AIR/FUEL ratio
Flaming Pyrolysis
Air (O2) in

Fuel

Flaming
Pyrolysis

Char
Gasification

CO, H2 out
THE KEYS TO BIOMASS THEMAL
CONVERSION

PGC
PYROLYSIS
GASIFICATION
COMBUSTION
 Biomass Reactions vs
Equivalence Ratio
C Combustion Complete
2000
Temperature - C

P G
1000
Charcoal and Lean burn ➔
Tar Zone
Autothermal operation
The burning of fuel
with an excess of air
All C converted to CO

0
0 ~0.25 1.0
Equivalence Ratio
 Gasification Fuel Ratio
• It is necessary to have the correct air (or
O2)/fuel ratio to achieve complete
gasification
• With lower values of this ratio you have an
excess of charcoal and tar.
• With higher values you deplete charcoal
and burn product gas.
• We call the optimum ratio the “Sweet Spot”
of gasification
Controlling the “Sweet Spot”
• The correct air/fuel ratio depends on many
things:
– Moisture content
– Type of biomass
– Air throughput rate
• We believe that “Sweet Spot” control is the
key to simple, clean gasification
Production Cost of Energy from
Biomass:

Small-scale biomass electric plants have

installed costs of $3,000 to $4,000 per kW, and
a levelized cost of energy of $0.8 to$0.15 per
kilowatt hour (kWh).
 Power Generation:

For a 7.5 to 12 MW biomass power

generation units, a minimum of 10
acres of land is required
 Efficiency

Efficiency
%
Co-firing 35-40
Gasification 25-30
Stirling engine CHP 11-20
 Advantages
• Biomass used as a fuel reduces need for fossil fuels for
the production of heat, steam, and electricity for
residential, industrial and agricultural use.
• Biomass fuel from agriculture wastes maybe a
secondary product that adds value to agricultural crop.
• Growing Biomass crops produce oxygen and use up
carbon dioxide.
• The use of waste materials reduce landfill disposal and
makes more space for everything else.
Carbon dioxide which is released when Biomass fuel is
burned, is taken in by plants.
• One of the major advantages of biomass is that it can be
used to generate electricity.
• Biomass energy is renewable source of energy
• Biomass does not add CO2 to the atmosphere as it
absorbs the same amount of carbon in growing as it
releases when consumed as a fuel.
• Biomass energy is not associated with environmental
impacts such as acid rain, mine spoils, open pits, oil
spills, radioactive waste disposal etc.
• Biomass fuels are sustainable.
• Alcohols and other fuels produced by biomass are
efficient, viable and relatively clean burning.
• Is easily available and can be grown with relative ease in
all parts of the world.
 Potential of Biomass:

The higher scenario results in a biomass

potential of 230 million toe, the lower
being 195 million toe.

tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is a unit of energy, defined as the amount of energy released by burning
one tonne (1000 Kilograms) of crude oil. The toe is used to describe large amounts of oil or natural
gas in transport or consumption, and will often use a prefix of mega (1 000 000) in order to
communicate this as Mtoe.
Feasibility of Biomass

Is Biomass feasible or not?

 Increasing the Power Yield:
• Grow specialized crops
• short rotation forestry currently a booming business.
• improve boiler efficiency (currently 10--30%) efficiency
translates directly into biomass tonnage
Only 5% of a plant's total biomass is suitable for food.
There are two alternatives for the remaining 95%:
• burn it
• turn it into fuel
 Contribution in World
In other countries, the economics of biomass conversion are more
viable:

• Brazil has limited oil reserves, therefore use ethanol as a major

transportation fuel.
• 1/3 of their 10 million cars run on hydrated ethanol (192 proof)
• Petroleum imports would end if 2% of Brazilian land area were
devoted to growing sugarcane for ethanol
• Bioenergy is the single largest renewable energy
source today providing 10% of world primary energy
supply.
• It plays a crucial role in many developing countries,
where it provides basic energy for cooking and space
heating.
• Biofuels can provide up to 27% of world
transportation fuel by 2050.
• Bioenergy accounts for roughly 10% (50 EJ) of
world total primary energy supply today. Most of this
is consumed in developing countries for cooking and
heating.
• Over the medium-term, world biofuel production
is projected to reach almost 140 billion liters in
2018.
• On an energy-adjusted basis, biofuels would
supply 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per
day (mboe/d), slightly less than the crude oil
production of the European Union in 2011.
• Biofuels could thus provide 4% of global road
transport fuel demand in 2018.
 Facts
• 10% of global energy supply provided by
bioenergy.
• 3.5% of road transport fuel provided
today is by biofuels.
Problems
 Biomass in Pakistan
• The availability of biomass in Pakistan is also widespread.
• Urban areas of Pakistan generate over 55000 tones of
solid wastes, 2,25000 tonnes of crop residue and over 1
million tonnes of animal manure are produced daily.
• On the average the daily dung dropping of medium size of
animal is estimated 15 kg per day. This would yield 854
million kg dung/day.
• Availability of fresh dung comes out to be 427 million
kg/day. Thus 21.35 million m3 biogas can be produced
through bio-methanation
 Biomass Energy Potential in
Pakistan
• Pakistan is experiencing a severe energy crisis these
days which is resulting in adverse long term economic
and social problems.
• The high cost of energy mix is the main underlying
reason behind the power crisis. The main fuel for the
local power industry is natural gas but due to the
continued depletion power generation companies are
now dependent on furnace oil which is relatively
expensive.
• The requirement of energy is fulfilled by biomass
resources which have been largely ignored in the past
and are also available in sufficient quantities to tackle
the energy crisis prevailing in the country.
 Animal Manure
• Pakistan is the world’s fourth largest
producer of milk. The cattle and dairy
population is around 67,294,000 while the
animal manure generation is estimated at
368,434,650 metric tons.
• Biogas generation from animal manure is
a very good proposition for Pakistan as the
country has the potential to produce
electrical energy equivalent to 23,654
GWh
 Municipal Solid Waste
• The generation or solid wastes in 9 major
urban centers is around 7.12 million tons
per annum which is increasing by 2.5%
per year due to rapid increase in
population and high rate of
industrialization.
• The average calorific value of MSW in
Pakistan is 6.89 MJ/kg which implies
power generation potential of around
13,900 GWh per annum.
Thankyou