Different biomass systems

1. Biomass Energy Systems

2. • Biomass Energy Systems
• Biomass Resource: Characteristics of Biomass fuel, technologies for
using biomass, comparison of direct combustion with other
technologies
• Biomass Gasifiers: Basics of Gasification and types of Gasifiers,
Thermodynamic Analysis Biogas Technology,
• Sizing/Selection and design of Gasifiers,
• Industrial use of biomass: Industrial Boilers, biomass as fuel, co-
firing and co-generation
• Economic analysis, Testing and Performance Evaluation of
Gasifiers, Use of biomass for liquid fuel, Biomass policy
• Biogas: Types of biogas plants, design and performance analysis,
application of biomass

3. Why do we use biofuels?
Driving forces?
Looking at biomass as source for energy and materials is a “new” trend, driven by
several factors:
• National or regional supply security
– Crude oil is very unevenly distributed, many nations or regions rely on
imports, biomass is present on most places
• Climate change
– Biomass is “Carbon-neutral” (intuitively correct, but there are issues!)
• Peak oil
– If crude oil supply actually dwindles biomass can provide a replacement (?)
– The only (?) alternative energy source that can provide convenient
transportation fuel (we need carbon…)
• Electricity: Limited by battery technology
• Hydrogen: Not an energy source, losses in production, issues with storage
• Cost
– If crude oil cost increases further biomass conversion might be competitive
• As per today biofuels require government subsidies

4. A post-petroleum future?

5. And of course the threat of climate change

6. Why governments are interested in bioenergy?
• Climate change – CO2 abatement
• Energy security
– High energy dependence on politically unstable
regions (Russian gas, Middle East)
– Rising price of fossil fuels; crude oil <$25/barrel in
Sept 2003, now over $100/bl
• Rural development; Diversification of farm activities
• …but concern over environmental impacts
– Biofuel technology is land intensive

7. This Ferrari F430 runs on biofuel

8. Biofuel uses
• Bioethanol
– Used as neat ethanol (E95, blend of 95% ethanol and 5%
water)
– Used as E85 (85% volume ethanol with petrol) in flex-fuel
vehicles
– Used as blend smaller than 5% volume (E5) in ordinary
petrol or as its derivative ETBE
• Biodiesel
– Current maximum 5% in diesel blends, otherwise can only
be used in modified diesel engines
• Current 5.75% EU target cannot be met with ordinary blends
of petrol and diesel
– Need for separate infrastructure (pumps, storage, delivery
for E85 and biodiesel or pure plant oil)

9. Present status
• We have a biofuel industry (1st generation, 1G)
– Bioethanol (E85, also E5/BIO95)
– Biodiesel (B5)
• Also B30 (<10 filling stations in Norway) and B100)
• From 2010: B7
• Government regulations and agricultural subsidies make
this possible
• Europe: Mostly biodiesel blended into fossil diesel
(agricultural subsidies)
• USA: Mostly ethanol blended into gasoline (agricultural
subsidies)
• Other large producers
– Brazil (ethanol, used neat) (national resource)
– South-East Asia (oil for biodiesel) (export industry)

10. Ethical dilemma:
Food or fuel?
• 1st generation biofuel utilizes edible plants
– Sugar/starch for fermentation to ethanol (cane, beet, corn (maize), etc.)
– Plant oils (rape seed oil, palm oil, soy bean oil, …)
• Competition with food market
– Food price is now linked with oil price!
– Rapid price increase for staple food products like corn flour, cooking oil
• Deforestation due to development of new plantations
– Large forested areas cleared for plantations, logging/burning
• Loss of natural carbon sink
– Deforestation releases carbon trapped in peat
– Carbon “pay back time” may be as high as 150 years!
– Agricultural monocultures are vulnerable
• Some analyses claim low or no CO2 benefit
– Some even suggest more energy is used than present in the fuel

11. Food commodities linked to oil price
• Competition with
fuel price has a
profound impact on
food price
– High oil price also
drives production
cost due to high fuel
price, fertilizer cost
etc.
• Poor people
needing staple food
can not pay as
much as rich people
needing “green”
biofuel for their
vehicles
Original source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2008. International commodity prices. http://www.fao.org/es/esc/prices (Accessed November 10, 2008)
Image from : http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/food-crisis/

12. • Bioenergy is energy of biological origin, derived from
biomass, such as fuelwood, livestock manure, municipal
waste, energy crops
• Biofuels are fuels produced from biomass, usually of
agricultural origin
– Bioethanol
– Biodiesel
– Biogas
• Energy crops are crops specifically cultivated to provide
bioenergy, mainly biofuels but also (miscanthus, short
rotation coppice, eucalyptus) other forms of energy

13. • Biofuels are a wide range of fuels which are in some way derived
from biomass. The term covers solid biomass, liquid fuels and
various biogases. Biofuels are gaining increased public and
scientific attention, driven by factors such as oil price spikes and
the need for increased energy security.
• Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermenting the sugar
components of plant materials and it is made mostly from sugar
and starch crops.
•With advanced technology being developed, cellulosic biomass,
such as trees and grasses, are also used as feedstocks for ethanol
production. 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.
•

14. •Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled
greases.
• 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 is produced from oils or fats using transesterification
and is the most common biofuel in Europe.
•Biofuels provided 1.8% of the world's transport fuel in 2008.
Investment into biofuels production capacity exceeded $4 billion
worldwide in 2007 and is growing.

16. FIRST GENERATION SECOND GENERATION
THIRD GENERATION FOURTH GENERATION

17. 'First-generation biofuels' are biofuels made from sugar, starch,
vegetable oil, or animal fats using conventional technology.
The basic feedstocks for the production of first generation biofuels
are often seeds or grains such as wheat, most commonly used ones
are sugarcane/ corn, which yields starch that is fermented into
bioethanol, or sunflower seeds, which are pressed to yield vegetable
oil that can be used in biodiesel.
These feedstocks could instead enter the animal or human food
chain, and as the global population has risen their use in producing
biofuels has been criticised for diverting food away from the human
food chain, leading to food shortages and price rises.

18. Biofuel transformation processes
First generation
Second generation

19. FIRST GENERATION BIOFUEL: CONTROVERSIES
•There is controversy and political speculation surrounding first-
generation biofuels due to the agricultural, economic, and social
implications associated with the potential expansion of biofuel
production.
•Research has been done in China that indicates that the demand for
bio-fuel feedstock such as maize, sugarcane, and cassava will
significantly increase due to the expansion of biofuel production;
the increased demand for feedstock will lead prices for such
grain to significantly increase.
•A similar study done examining a potential increase in ethanol
production capacity in the United States also predicts an upward
trend in agricultural prices as a direct affect of expanding
domestic biofuel production .

20. •Supporters of biofuels claim that a more viable solution is to
increase political and industrial support for, and rapidity of, second-
generation biofuel implementation from non-food crops.
•These include waste biomass, the stalks of wheat, corn, wood, and
special-energy-or-biomass crops (e.g. Miscanthus).
•Second generation (2G) biofuels use biomass to liquid
technology,[including cellulosic biofuels. Many second generation
biofuels are under development such as biohydrogen, biomethanol,
DMF, Bio-DME, Fisher-Tropsh diesel, biohydrogen diesel, mixed
alcohols and wood diesel.

21. •Cellulosic ethanol production uses non-food crops or inedible
waste products and does not divert food away from the animal
or human food chain.
•Lignocellulose is the "woody" structural material of plants.
This feedstock is abundant and diverse, and in some cases (like
citrus peels or sawdust) it is in itself a significant disposal
problem.

22. 2G Ethanol

23. Algae fuel, also called oilgae or third generation biofuel, is a biofuel from
algae.
Algae are low-input, high-yield feedstocks to produce biofuels.
Based on laboratory experiments, it is claimed that algae can produces up
to 30 times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans, but
these yields have yet to be produced commercially.
With the higher prices of fossil fuels (petroleum), there is much interest in
algaculture (farming algae).
One advantage of many biofuels over most other fuel types is that they are
biodegradable, and so relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.

24. Algae fuel still has its difficulties though, for instance to produce
algae fuels it must be mixed uniformly, which, if done by
agitation, could affect biomass growth.
The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae
fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would
require 15,000 square miles (38,849 square kilometers), which is
roughly the size of Maryland, or less than one seventh the
amount of land devoted to corn in 2000.
Second and third generation biofuels are also called advanced
biofuels.

25. Green fuels
However, if biocatalytic cracking and traditional fractional
distillation used to process properly prepared algal
biomass i.e. biocrude, then as a result we receive the
following distillates: jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, etc.. Hence,
we may call them third generation or green fuels.
Ethanol from living algae
Most biofuel production comes from harvesting organic matter
and then converting it to fuel but an alternative approach relies
on the fact that some algae naturally produce ethanol and this
can be collected without killing the algae. The ethanol
evaporates and then can be condensed and collected. The
company Algenol is trying to commercialize this process.

26. •Four Generation Bio-fuels are aimed at not only producing sustainable energy
but also a way of capturing and storing CO2.
•Biomass materials, which have absorbed CO2 while growing, are converted
into fuel using the same processes as second generation biofuels.
•This process differs from second and third generation production as at all
stages of production the carbon dioxide is captured using processes such as
oxy-fuel combustion.
•The carbon dioxide can then be geo-sequestered by storing it in old oil and
gas fields or saline aquifers. This carbon capture makes fourth generation
biofuel production carbon negative rather then simply carbon neutral, as it is
‘locks’ away more carbon than it produces.
•This system not only captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
but it also reduces CO2 emissions by replacing fossil fuels.

27. •Helioculture is a newly developed technology which is claimed to be able
to produce 20,000 gallons of fuel per acre per year, and which removes
carbon dioxide from the air as a feedstock for the fuel.
•
Helioculture involves direct conversion of carbon dioxide into fuel using
solar power.
•Helioculture can be used to develop many different fuels and petroleum-
derived chemicals all while not using any fresh water or agriculture.
•Helioculture, the process is composed of carbon dioxide and a solar
converter that captures sunlight, turning them into a liquid biofuel. This
solar converter contains nutrients, an internal broth of gray water and
genetically engineered organisms that use photosynthesis to secrete
hydrocarbons that can be used as fuel.

28. 28
A sustainable energy ought to be an
Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2-Energy) – E2-Energy
process will convert bio-waste from animal, human and food
processing into crude oil via thermo-chemical conversion (TCC),
and produce algae using the waste water from those streams.
The algae then will be fed back to TCC process to convert into oil.
During the algae growth the nutrient in waste water is utilized and
atmospheric carbon dioxide is sequestered, thus the environment is
improved .

29. 29
Why E2-Energy?
• Safeguard national security – By extracting bio-waste from
dispersed local communities, geopolitical threat from
petroleum importation can be eliminated.
• Clean and reuse wastewaters – Nutrients in the wastewater
will be reused for algae growing and conserve water resources.
• Sequester carbon dioxide and slowdown global warming –
Algae, currently produces 40-50% of the free oxygen for the
earth; and can reuse the CO2 produced in the HTP process.
• No competition with the food supply – Biowaste and algae
grown in wastewater does not need to compete with farm land
and food supply.

30. Biomass as Renewable Feedstock for Biorefineries

31. Biomass
Conversion
Processes

32. Whole Crop
Biorefinery

33. Biodiesel

34. Main Bioenergy Feedstocks
• Wood
– Forest management residues
– Fuel timber
• Crops
– Annual (cereals, oilseed rape, sugarbeet)
– Perennial (miscanthus, reed canary grass, short
rotation coppice)
• Wastes
– Straw
– Animal manure