Lecture - 3

Biomass - methods of energy conversion - familiarization with biomass

utilization for biofuel production and their application
BIOMASS
Biomass is organic matter produced by plants, both terrestrial and aquatic and their
derivatives. It includes forest crops and residues, crop grown especially for their energy
content on “energy forms” and animal manure. Unlike coal, oil and natural gas, which takes
million of years to form, biomass can be considered a renewable energy source because
plant life renews and adds to itself every year. It can also be considered a form of solar
energy as the latter is used indirectly to grow these plants by photosynthesis. The energy
content of biomass is in the range of 15 - 20 MJ/kg.
Solar energy  Photosynthesis  Biomass  Energy generation
Biomass is important feature in our country. Biomass resources fall into three categories
 Biomass in its traditional solid mass (wood and agricultural residue). These are burn
directly and get the energy
 Biomass in non - traditional form (converted into liquid fuels), the biomass is converted
into ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and methanol (methyl - alcohol).
 To ferment the biomass anaerobically to obtain a gaseous fuel called biogas.
METHODS OF ENERGY CONVERSION
Biomass resource - wood, dung, and vegetable waste can be treated in many different
ways to provide a wide spectrum of useful products. The choice of the process is determined
by a number of factors - location of the resource and its physical condition, the economics of
competing process, and the availability of a suitable market for the product.
Biomass conversion, or simply bio conversion an take many forms
1. Direct combustion, such as wood waste and bagasse
2. Thermochemical conversion
3. Biochemical conversion
Direct combustion
Principles of combustion
In general, the term combustion refers to the process of release of heat by the
exothermic heat of reaction for the oxidation of the combustible constituents of the fuel.
Practically the combustion process is an interaction among fuel, energy and environment.

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 1 Lecture-3

 Fuel may be defined as a combustible substance available in bulk, which on burning
in presence of atmospheric air generates heat that can be economically utilized for domestic
and industrial purpose.
Combustion is the process now in commercial operation that uses biomass to produce
energy is combustion. Direct combustion requires biomass with moisture content around
15 per cent or less, so it may require drying prior to combustion for most of the crops. The
combustion produces steam both for process use and for electricity. The exact economics of
the combustion of wood for steam production varies at the many paper mills, sawmills and
various other industries that utilize this technology.
Electricity can also be produced by installing require capacity power plant near the
industry.
Important parameters affecting combustion
 Moisture content
 Organic compounds - Cellulose, Hemi cellulose and lignin
 Minerals (Ash) - silica
Importance terms related to combustion
Heating value
The amount of heat produced by combustion of a unit quantity of a fuel
Sensible heat
Storage by causing a material to rise in temperature is called sensible heat storage.
Sensible heat storage involves a material that undergoes no change in phase over the
temperature domain encountered in the storage process (water and rock).
Latent heat
Storage by phase change, the transition from solid to liquid or liquid to vapour is
another mode of thermal storage, known as latent heat.
Gross calorific value (GCV)/ higher heating value (HHV) or Higher Calorific Value
The gross calorific value or higher heating value is the number of heat units released
when unit weight of solid or liquid fuel or unit volume of gaseous fuel completely burned and
the products of combustion cooled to 15C, thereby condensing the water vapour.
Net calorific value/ Lower heating value
The net calorific value is defined as the gross calorific value minus the latent heat of
the condensation (15C) of the water vapour present in the products of combustion.

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 2 Lecture-3

Ultimate and proximate analysis
These are used for expressing the composition of any solid fuel, in an ultimate
analysis, determination of each of the major chemical elements of a fuel is made, In a
proximate analysis four arbitrarily defined groups of constituents, namely moisture, volatile
matter, fixed carbon and ash are determined.
Fixed carbon is the solid combustible residue that remains after a coal particle is
heated and the volatile matter is expelled. The fixed-carbon content of a coal is determined
by subtracting the percentages of moisture, volatile matter, and ash from a sample .
Draft
In order to pass the air through the fuel bed of the furnace and discharge the flue gas
(Hot gases coming out of a chimney, venting a burner or a combustion chamber. Flue gas
may contain oxides of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur as well as fly-ash, other pollutants, and
water vapor) at a sufficient height in the atmosphere, a pressure difference is required, which
is generally known as draft in a furnace and it is expressed in terms of millimeters of water.
Furnace for biomass combustion
Fixed grate furnace
Inclined grate furnace and Horizontal grate furnace
Cyclone furnace
Fixed grate furnaces the primary air passes through a fixed bed, in which drying,
gasification, and charcoal combustion takes place.
Crushed coal and a small amount of primary air enter from the front of the cyclone into
the burner. In the main cyclone burner, secondary air is introduced tangentially, causing a
circulating gas flow pattern. The products, flue gas and un-combusted fuel, then leave the
burner and pass over the boiler tubes.

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 3 Lecture-3

Incineration
Incineration is one of the common methods of disposing of solid waste by high
temperature oxidation. Its main purpose is to reduce the volume of solid refuse.
Biomass conversion technologies
Biomass conversion
1) Direct combustion, such as wood waste and bagasse (sugar cane refuge),
2) Thermochemical conversion, and
3) Bio chemical conversion
Thermochemical conversion
Thermochemical conversion takes two forms: Gasification and liquefaction,
Gasification takes place by heating the biomass with limited oxygen to produce low heating
value gas or by reacting it with steam and oxygen at high pressure and temperature to
produce medium heating value gas. The latter may be used as fuel directly or used in
liquefaction by converting it to methanol or ethanol or it may be converted to high heating
value gas.
Gasification
The word gasification implies converting a solid or liquid into a gaseous fuel without
leaving any solid carbonaceous residue.
Pyrolysis (destructive distillation)
The organic material is heated or partially combusted to produce secondary fuels and
chemical products. The input may be wood, biomass residues, municipal waste or indeed
coal. The products are gases, condensed vapours as liquids, tars and oils and solid residue as
char (charcoal) and ash. Traditional charcoal making is pyrolysis with the vapours and gases
are not collected.

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 4 Lecture-3

Fast pyrolysis
Fast pyrolysis is a process in which organic materials are rapidly heated to 450 - 600 °C
in the absence of air. Under these conditions, organic vapors, pyrolysis gases and charcoal
are produced. The vapors are condensed to bio-oil. Typically, 60-75 % of the feedstock is
converted into oil.
Slow pyrolysis
Coventional or slow pyrolysis is characterized by slow biomass heating rates, low
temperatures and, lengthy gas and solids residence times. Depending on the system, heating
rates are about 0.1 to 2oC per second and prevailing temperatures are around 500C. Gas
residence time may be greater than five seconds while that of the biomass can be range from
minutes to days.
Slow pyrolysis takes several hours to complete and results in biochar as the main
product.
Flash pyrolysis
Flash pyrolysis occurs at rapid heating rates and moderate temperatures between
400 and 600°C. However, vapor residence time of this process is less than 2s. Flash
pyrolysis produces fewer amounts of gas and tar when compared to slow pyrolysis.
Flue gas
Flue gas is the gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue, which is a pipe or channel for
conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler or steam generator. Quite
often, the flue gas refers to the combustion exhaust gas produced at power plants.
FAMILIARIZATION WITH BIOMASS UTILIZATION FOR BIOFUEL
PRODUCTION
Bio-fuels
A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes, such as
agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than a fuel produced by geological processes such
as those involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, from
prehistoric biological matter.
Liquid biofuels
Liquid biofuels, as their name suggests, are fuels derived from biomass and processed
to produce a combustible liquid fuel. Liquid bio fuels being considered world over fall in to
the following categories: i) Alcohols; ii) Plant seed oils; and iii) Bio crude and synthetic oils.
Example. Bio ethanol, Bio methanol, Bio butanol, Bio diesel and Bio oil

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 5 Lecture-3

APPLICATIONS
Fuel Light, power, heat
Raw material in chemical process Ethylene, ether, ester
General utility Hospital, Chemical laboratory, Home
Solvent Dyes, Nitro cellulose , oils and waxes, drugs and
chemicals, preparation of tincultures
Miscellaneous Carbon removal, preservative, antiseptic

AEG 301 Dr.S.Sivakumar, PAJANCOA & RI 6 Lecture-3