Lecture 3 - Biochemical Conversion of Biofuels

Biochemical conversion of biomass
resources
Dr. Jeevan Jayasuriya

jeevan.jayasuriya@energy.kth.se
Intended Learning outcomes
 Should be able to describe the key processes of energy conversion of biomass resource to
bioenergy though biochemical processes.
 Should be able to describe the process of anaerobic digestion – conversion of biomass to

biogas
 Should be able to describe process of fermentation and ethanol production

Energy conversion matrix of biomass
Anerobic digestion – biogas production and applications
What is biogas
Biogas is a type of biofuel that is naturally produced from the decomposition of

organic waste.
Naturally produces methane from biological feedstock as the useful fuel, with
residuals and by products
Why biogas in important
It is integrated to
- Clean city management
- Reduced greenhouse footprint
- produce valuable services from waste
It is part of – SMART city development

- Circular economy
Biogas from digestion
Biogas production
Digestion and biogas production
Biogas production – System overview
Biogas production – System overview
Biogas production process digester
Industrial production layout

Biogas – plants using industrial
wastewater in Sweden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpvdwSCZ30Y
Biogas production process and inlet materials (substrate)
 Swage from municipal wastewater treatment
 Household waste collection
 Agricultural waste and residues from farms
 Waste and leftover from food processing industries

Biogas plant product output
 Methane and carbon dioxide mixture (fuel) – purified to 95 – 97%

(methane)
 Bio-fertilizer
Biogas use and distribution networks
 Use
 Fuel for transport application

 Fuel for gas heating applications
 Raw material for chemicals and industrial production
 Distribution networks
 Gas distribution pipeline networks

 Compressed gas transport tank and vessels
 Liquefied gas transport
Swedish examples
Biogas is an integrated component to many Swedish cities
 All the southern cities (Uppsala and below) Gas distribution

network for vehicles
 Few examples – Västerås, Linköpping, Malmo

 Municipality taking the responsibility of system policies
 Waste handling
 Local public transport connected
 Support networks and professional companies involved
Biogas Applications- transport sector
Fermentation – Ethanol production and applications
Fermentation and ethanol production
Ethanol is produced from biomass mostly via a fermentation process using glucose derived from sugars
(sugar cane, sugar beet and molasses), starch (corn, wheat, grains) or cellulose (forest products) as raw
materials. In this form, it is renewable.
Agroethanol plant – Norköpping
Substrates and products (Annual production 230,000 m 3)
Agroethanol plant – Norköpping
Birds eye view

Ethanol Applications – transport sector
Oil extraction – Biodiesel DME
Vegetable oils (plant oils)
Polyglycerides that contain energy and nutrition for the plant

germination – a readily available natural fuel, replacement to
fossil diesel.
Oil can be directly extracted from the fruits or seeds of
any oil-producing plant by simple physical methods:
•Cold pressing followed by filtration, or
•Warm pressing followed by extraction with organic solvents
and purification.
Examples of plants with high oil content are:

Oil palm, sunflower, canola (rapeseed), soy, linseed, hemp, jojoba,
jatropha, avocado, all kinds of nuts, etc…
Crop
Highest vegetable oil yields
kg oil/ha litres oil/ha lbs oil/acre
Source:
US gal/acre
linseed (flax) 402 478 359 http://journeytoforever.org/ 51
hazelnuts 405 482 362 51
euphorbia 440 524 393 56
pumpkin seed 449 534 401 57
coriander 450 536 402 57
mustard seed 481 572 430 61
sesame 585 696 522 74
safflower 655 779 585 83
tung oil tree 790 940 705 100
sunflowers 800 952 714 102
cocoa (cacao) 863 1026 771 110
peanuts 890 1059 795 113
opium poppy 978 1163 873 124
rapeseed 1000 1190 893 127
olives 1019 1212 910 129
castor beans 1188 1413 1061 151
pecan nuts 1505 1791 1344 191
jojoba 1528 1818 1365 194
jatropha 1590 1892 1420 202
macadamia nuts 1887 2246 1685 240
brazil nuts 2010 2392 1795 255
avocado 2217 2638 1980 282
coconut 2260 2689 2018 287
oil palm 5000 5950 4465 635

Vegetable oil production
distribution
Ref: USDA 2017

The oil palm
The canola (raps) plant
Canola (rapeseed, raps, colza) is the oil plant of the
temperate climate, with yields of around 1 – 2 m3 of oil per ha.
Source: www.svenskraps.se
The jatropha plant
Holding a promise for oil production in warm, arid, poor-soil areas
Source: http://thecostaricanews.com
Straight Vegetable Oil vs. Biodiesel
Vegetable oils can be used in two different forms:
•Raw Straight Vegetable Oils (SVO), aka Pure Plant Oils (PPO) –
the only treatment is pressing and filtering;
•Chemically converted into esters  biodiesel.
•Other physicochemical treatment methods  biodiesel.
Source: www.emerging-
markets.com
Biodiesel = RME or FAME
Biodiesel production is a chemical process for trans-esterification of the
complex triglyceride molecule of the fatty acid by alcohols (methanol).
The result is a mixture of fatty esters with properties close to fossil
diesel.
The biggest disadvantage of biodiesel is its higher cost than SVO!
KOH
Biodiesel (methyl ester) and
diesel fuel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf2oEUghJkI
Biodiesel production
development
Source: www.longhini.eu
Advantages:
Raw SVO instead of biodiesel
Directly delivered by oil plants. Simplest and cheapest biofuel.
Can easily be produced and used at small scales, free from
centralized manufacturing or from political/corporate misuse.
Disadvantages:
High viscosity and prone to waxing, coking, freezing, acidification via
aging. Difficult cold start of the engine, cokes on injectors or valves.
Engines need to be specially converted /adapted to SVO.
Way to solve the problems:

• Preheat the SVO before it reaches the engine.
• Upgrade of injectors and/or fuel pumps to enable cold-start on 100% SVO.
• Avoid using SVO older than 2 years, store in dark and cool rooms.
• Double-tank solution – cold start on diesel, then switch to SVO!
Combustion characteristics:
•Both SVO and biodiesel behave in the same way and produce the
same pollutant emissions when combusted, just as fossil diesel
fuel.
HVO instead of FAME
Hydrogen-treated vegetable oil (HVO) – very similar to fossil diesel
Uses a different process than FAME and consists mostly of paraffinic hydrocarbons
Advantages:
Stable conversion process and higher-quality product than biodiesel.
Better properties at freezing and at combustion temperatures, even better than fossil diesel.
Disadvantages:
Expensive hardware and process control, can only be done by large oil refineries.
Source: www.nesteoil.fi
Summary - biochemical conversion of biomass resources
• Introduced the process and applications of anaerobic digestion, fermentation and plant oil
extraction of biomass for bioenergy applications.
• Discussed the process and applications of ethanol production

Carbon Negative – Forest resources are the key to removal of
Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
- To the furture
- Biomass use in power generation and carbon capture and storage (BECCS)
- Forest management through returning of biochar to soil condtioning can enhanced the
CO2 removal process.
Carbon Negative – Forest resources are the key to removal of
Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Carbon Negative – (BECCS) Projects
Stockholm Exergi – estimates removal of 0.8 million tons of CO2 from Atmosphere though its operations.
Overall in Stockholm 2 million tons of CO2 removal is the potential

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Biochemical conversion of biomass

Dr. Jeevan Jayasuriya

 Should be able to describe the process of anaerobic digestion – conversion of biomass to

 Should be able to describe process of fermentation and ethanol production

Biogas is a type of biofuel that is naturally produced from the decomposition of

- Clean city management

- Reduced greenhouse footprint

- produce valuable services from waste

It is part of – SMART city development

Industrial production layout

 Swage from municipal wastewater treatment

 Household waste collection

 Agricultural waste and residues from farms

 Waste and leftover from food processing industries

 Methane and carbon dioxide mixture (fuel) – purified to 95 – 97%

 Fuel for transport application

 Gas distribution pipeline networks

Biogas is an integrated component to many Swedish cities

 All the southern cities (Uppsala and below) Gas distribution

 Few examples – Västerås, Linköpping, Malmo

Birds eye view

Polyglycerides that contain energy and nutrition for the plant

Examples of plants with high oil content are:

linseed (flax) 402 478 359 http://journeytoforever.org/ 51

hazelnuts 405 482 362 51

euphorbia 440 524 393 56

pumpkin seed 449 534 401 57

coriander 450 536 402 57

mustard seed 481 572 430 61

sesame 585 696 522 74

safflower 655 779 585 83

tung oil tree 790 940 705 100

sunflowers 800 952 714 102

cocoa (cacao) 863 1026 771 110

peanuts 890 1059 795 113

opium poppy 978 1163 873 124

rapeseed 1000 1190 893 127

olives 1019 1212 910 129

castor beans 1188 1413 1061 151

pecan nuts 1505 1791 1344 191

jojoba 1528 1818 1365 194

jatropha 1590 1892 1420 202

macadamia nuts 1887 2246 1685 240

brazil nuts 2010 2392 1795 255

avocado 2217 2638 1980 282

coconut 2260 2689 2018 287

oil palm 5000 5950 4465 635

Ref: USDA 2017

Way to solve the problems:

• Discussed the process and applications of ethanol production

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