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    Frontline Bioenergy, LLC: What Is Biomass?

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    Armando Hernandez
    Biomass refers to organic material of recent biological origin, such as plant residues from agriculture and forestry. This material has absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Biomass is considered renewable because its abundance could persist with proper forest and agricultural management. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the potential annual biomass supply in the US is 1.4 billion dry tons per year from agricultural and forestry residues. This large untapped resource could displace a significant amount of imported oil and represents a large domestic renewable energy source. Biomass has different characteristics than coal and is generally more reactive, consisting primarily of volatile matter with lower ash melting points. It can be converted into fuels, chemicals, and other products through various thermal

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    Frontline Bioenergy, LLC: What Is Biomass?

    Uploaded by

    Armando Hernandez
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    Biomass refers to organic material of recent biological origin, such as plant residues from agriculture and forestry. This material has absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Biomass is considered renewable because its abundance could persist with proper forest and agricultural management. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the potential annual biomass supply in the US is 1.4 billion dry tons per year from agricultural and forestry residues. This large untapped resource could displace a significant amount of imported oil and represents a large domestic renewable energy source. Biomass has different characteristics than coal and is generally more reactive, consisting primarily of volatile matter with lower ash melting points. It can be converted into fuels, chemicals, and other products through various thermal

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    Biomass refers to organic material of recent biological origin, such as plant residues from agriculture and forestry. This material has absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Biomass is considered renewable because its abundance could persist with proper forest and agricultural management. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the potential annual biomass supply in the US is 1.4 billion dry tons per year from agricultural and forestry residues. This large untapped resource could displace a significant amount of imported oil and represents a large domestic renewable energy source. Biomass has different characteristics than coal and is generally more reactive, consisting primarily of volatile matter with lower ash melting points. It can be converted into fuels, chemicals, and other products through various thermal

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    42 views5 pages

    Frontline Bioenergy, LLC: What Is Biomass?

    Uploaded by

    Armando Hernandez
    Biomass refers to organic material of recent biological origin, such as plant residues from agriculture and forestry. This material has absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Biomass is considered renewable because its abundance could persist with proper forest and agricultural management. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the potential annual biomass supply in the US is 1.4 billion dry tons per year from agricultural and forestry residues. This large untapped resource could displace a significant amount of imported oil and represents a large domestic renewable energy source. Biomass has different characteristics than coal and is generally more reactive, consisting primarily of volatile matter with lower ash melting points. It can be converted into fuels, chemicals, and other products through various thermal

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    Frontline BioEnergy, LLC

    What is Biomass?
    Biomass:  
    "Organic material of recent biological origin"
     
    HOME
    Plant residues that have been grown, harvested and disposed of recently
    What is are generally classified as "biomass".  What's important about the "recent
    Biomass?
    biological origin" is that this material has removed carbon dioxide (CO2, which
    What is
    gasification?
    is a dominant "greenhouse gas") from the atmosphere and upgraded it
    chemically into an energy rich carbohydrate through a photosynthetic reaction
    Management
    Team with water.  Biomass is a "renewable" energy feedstock because its abundance
    Employment
    could persist in perpetuity on the earth with proper silvaculture of this resource.
     
    In general, biomass is often thought of as plant material that has a low-value as
    generated.  For example, biomass is by product material generated during the
    processes of agriculture and forestry.  Biomass is also generated by food and
    fiber industries as residues and low-value byproducts of the processes.  It is
    generated as a mill waste from the processing of lumber, cotton and sugar
    cane, for example "mill residues".  It is generated during the construction and
    deconstruction of houses (urban wood waste) and the management of city
    parks.   Finally, it is generated by you and I as yard waste and trash usually
    destined for landfill deposit.
     
    Organic matter, or biomass, can be thought of as a chemical
    carbohydrate.  Plant matter, or biomass, has a complex structure of glucose
    polymers known as cellulouse and hemicellulous and it also contains
    structurally important lignin.  On a moisture free and ash free basis (maf), most
    biomass contains ~80% volatile matter and 20% fixed carbon. 
     
    There are many approaches to biomass conversion including thermal,
    chemical, biological, and oxidative.  Likewise, there are many potential valuable
    products that may result from its conversion including heat energy, synthetic
    fuels, fertilizer, hydrogen, chemicals, bio-polymers, and even bio-
    pharmeceuticals.
     
    Biomass is generally more reactive than coal (by comparison), being dominated
    by volatile matter with a less significant portion of fixed carbon content. 
    Biomass ash contains essentially benign minerals (in contrast to coal that has a
    host of bad actors from an air, water and soil pollution perspective), and it has a
    lower melting point (compared to coal ash) because it is less refractory in
    composition (less alumina and silica, more iron, potassium, phosphorous)
    Agricultural Residues ~ 1 B dry Forest Residues (thinning and
    T/yr management) ~ 0.4 B dry T/yr
    Bundling of forest residues

    Corn Stover: Largest Component of Ag Residue

    USDA Estimates 1.4 Billion Tons/year of Biomass


    According to the US Department of Agriculture,  the potential biomass annual
    supply could be as much as 1.4 Billion dry tons per year! [ref]  This resource is
    very large and mostly untapped.  It is comprised mainly of agricultural residues
    (~1 B dT/yr), and forestry residues (~0.4 BdT/yr).  As an energy feedstock,
    "biomass" could be used to displace a huge amount of imported foreign oil (~1
    to 2 B bbl/yr), and therefore it represents a very large
    domestic renewable energy reserve. 
    How significant is 1.4 B dry T/year of biomass? 
    Approximately 70 to 100 Billion gallons peryear of ethanol could be produced
    from this "biomass resource" without having to plant a single energy crop.  This
    is about 100x the current ethanol production capacity in the USA.
     
    The 1.4 BT/yr of biomass resource potential is comprised of approx 1 Billion dry
    tons/yr of agricultural residues and 0.4 BdT/yr of potential forestry residues. 
    Other sources of biomass feedstock that could also be utilized in the near-term
    include urban wood waste (from your local landfill or your own yard), mill
    residues, and even new dedicated energy crops.
    Other Examples of Biomass  

    Wheat Straw: Ag Residue (regionally abundant) Sawdust Pile: Example Mill Residue
    SRC Harvest: Example of an Energy Crop

    Pile of Rice Husks

    Cotton Gin Waste: Mill/Ag Residue

    Made through Photosynthesis
    Solar energy (light) is captured by
    pigments in higher plants, algae
    and cyano-bacteria, and this
    energy is used to reduce
    atmospheric carbon dioxide gas
    into carbohydrate energy through
    biological reaction with water
    (making its hydrogen available to
    the carbohydrate).  The
    photosynthesis process removes
    carbon dioxide from the
    atmosphere while releasing pure
    oxygen (see Figure).
     
    This natural process creates what we call "biomass" in the form of plant
    material or cell mass.  Therefore, solar energy is stored in the form of
    carbohydrate chemicals such as cellulose, hemicellulous and lignin. 
     
    Cellulose and hemicellulose are polysaccharides of glucose (i.e., they
    are polymers of glucose). Hemicellulose is less complex than cellulose
    and therefore, more easily hydrolyzed to simple sugars and other
    products.  Lignin is an amorphous polymer related to cellulose which
    plays an important role in developing plant structure. 
     
    As a result of natural plant growth, solar energy is stored in a
    concentrated and accessible chemical form we call Biomass.    Biomass
    has a similar chemical composition (assuming moisture free and ash fee
    basis).  A simplistic formula below illustrates the production of biomass
    using solar energy inputs.   Solar collection efficiencies can be as high
    as 10% with rapid growing crops such as sugar cane.

    Examples of common biomass includes crop residues (wheat straw,


    corn stover, nut shells, orchard prunings, vineyard stakes, sugar cane
    bagasse, etc.), municipal solid waste (trash, rubbish and refuse),
    forest residues (slash, & forest thinning) and urban wood waste
    (construction residues, grass clippings and backyard prunings).  There
    are also several exciting energy crops that are being developed for
    rapid growth and other desirable properties.
    Reference Chart:  "USA Supply Curve 2020, Lignocellulosics Only"  Mann and Overend
    (NREL);  Presentation to the National Research Council, Washington DC, April 2003. 
    (1 PetaJoule = 1 million GJ,  ~0.95 x 10^6 MMBtu)

    Proximate Analysis and Ash Properties


    Generally biomass has a proximate analysis of 80% volatile matter and
    20% fixed carbon, when using a moisture free and ash free basis.  In
    contrast, group-1 bituminous coal has 80% fixed carbon and just 20%
    volatile matter (maf basis).
     
    Ash content for biomass can vary from less than 1% for wood to as
    much as 12% for most straw and Bagasse (sugar cane residue).  Ash
    can exceed 20% in the case of animal manures.  Biomass ash is valued
    as a soil amendment because of mineral nutrients such as phosphate
    and potash, unlike coal derived ash. 
    Biomass is usually processed in dry ash gasification systems (non-
    slagging) because its go/no-go operating temperature is generally not
    more than ~950C or 1000C.  Avoiding peak temperatures above 950 or
    1000C in biomass gasification helps prevent ash fusion and chemical
    agglomeration problems--for example, localized ash clinkers or
    uncontrolled viscous slag formation. Biomass ash has lesser amounts of
    refractory oxides (silica and alumina), rather it contains significant
    amounts of lower melting point minerals like potash, phosphate, and
    calcium and iron oxides.
     
    Biomass Heating Value
    The raw heating value of biomass is ~20 GJ/dry tonne HHV, or about
    18.5 GJ/t LHV at 10% moisture (ash free).  By example, a gallon of
    gasoline has ~120 MJ of energy (LHV), so a metric ton of dry biomass
    will contain nearly 155 gallons of gasoline equivalent energy in its raw,
    unconverted state. 
     
    Biomass Conversion
    Biomass energy can be extracted for many fuel, chemical and power
    generation applications. Today and tomorrow’s biomass refinery
    (biorefinery) requires advanced technology well beyond simple
    combustion.  Frontline BioEnergy, LLC is developing thermochemical
    gasification that is suitable for integration with well developed syngas
    catalytic conversion technologies for production of a variety of fuels and
    chemicals.  Our approach is to achieve the cleanest gas at the highest
    possible efficiencies known to the state-of-the-art. Therefore, tomorrow’s
    biorefinery will be able to efficiently produce a variety of products
    including syngas, hydrogen, C2+ alcohols, and other chemicals.

    http://www.frontlinebioenergy.com/id15.html

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