Transformation of Biomass

Theory to Practice

Andreas Hornung

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118693667
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Chemistry
• Index: Chemistry

Biomass is a key resource for meeting the energy and material demands of mankind in the future. As a result, businesses and technologies are developing around biomass processing and its applications.

Transformation of Biomass: Theory to Practice explores the modern applications of biomass and bio-based residues for the generation of energy, heat and chemical products. The first chapter presents readers with a broad overview of biomass and its composition, conversion routes and products. The following chapters deal with specific technologies, including anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis and gasification, as well as hydrothermal and supercritical conversion. Each chapter details current practises, recent developments, business case models and comprehensive analysis of the problems associated with each approach, and how to optimize them.

Topics covered include:

• Anaerobic digestion
• Reactor design
• Pyrolysis
• Catalysis in biomass transformation
• Engines for combined heat and power
• Influence of feedstocks on performance and products
• Bio-hydrogen from biomass
• Analysis of bio-oils
• Numerical simulation and formal kinetic parameters evaluation
• Business case development

This textbook will provide students, researchers and industry professionals with a practical and accessible guide to the essential skills required to advance in the field of bioenergy.

1
Biomass, Conversion Routes and Products – An Overview

K.K. Pant and Pravakar Mohanty

Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India

1.1 Introduction

The world consumes nearly two barrels of oil for every barrel produced. The depletion of conventional resources and stricter environmental regulations, along with increasing demand for commercial fuels and chemicals, has led to the need to find the alternatives to conventional fuel and chemical sources. Renewable plant materials are considered as one of the most promising alternatives for the production of fuels and chemicals. The conventional sources for fuels and chemicals are fossil fuels, crude oil natural gas, coal and so on, which are dwindling rapidly. With the concept of green chemistry, there is every necessity to produce alternative sources of energy and fuels from renewable biomass. Biomass refers to all organic matter generated through photosynthesis and many other biological processes. The ultimate source of energy this renewable biomass is inexhaustible solar energy, which is captured by plants through photosynthesis. It includes both terrestrial as well as aquatic matter, such as wood, herbaceous plants, algae, aquatic plants; residues such as straw, husks, corncobs, cow dung, sawdust, wood shavings, sawn wood, wood based panels, pulp for paper, paper board, and other wastes like disposable garbage, night soil, sewage solids, industrial refuse and so on [1]. Biomass can provide approximately 25% of our current energy demand, if properly utilized. Taking into account the production of biomass with respect to land and forest area, there are 4033 million ha of forests worldwide, as presented in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Forest resources, area (ha), year (2010).

Name of country	Land area (million ha)	Forest area (million ha)	%	Forest area per 1000 people
Africa	2965	674	23	683
South America	1756	864	49	2246
North and Central America	2110	705	33	1315
Asia	3094	593	19	145
Europe	2214	1005	45	1373
Oceania	849	191	23	5478
Caribbean	23	7	30	166
World	13010	4033	31	597

In India 55.2 million ha of waste land is available for a wide range of short period energy crop productions [2]. Tropical and subtropical forests comprise 55% of the world's forests, while temperate and boreal forests account for rest 45% [3]. The average area of forest and wooded land per inhabitant varies regionally. Production and use of wood fuel, industrial round wood, sawn wood, wood-based panels, pulp for paper, paper board (m³) usage and its production are presented in Table 1.2. The total carbon stored in forest biomass is approximately 331 Giga tonnes (GT). About 27% of biomass is used directly as carbon feedstock, for example, sawn wood, wood based panels, pulp for paper, paper and paper board, mainly in developing countries. However, 33% is used as an industrial raw material and the remaining 40% is used as primary or secondary process residues, suitable only for energy production, for example, for production of upgraded biofuels [2, 3]. Approximately 70–77% of the global wood harvest is either used or is potentially available as a renewable energy source.

Table 1.2 Production and utilization of wood fuel, industrial round wood, sawn wood, wood-based panels, pulp for paper, and paper and paper boar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• About the Editor
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Biomass, Conversion Routes and Products – An Overview
• Chapter 2: Anaerobic Digestion
• Chapter 3: Reactor Design and Its Impact on Performance and Products
• Chapter 4: Pyrolysis
• Chapter 5: Catalysis in Biomass Transformation
• Chapter 5.A: Catalytic Reforming of Brewers Spent Grain
• Chapter 6: Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass
• Chapter 7:
• Chapter 8:
• Chapter 9:
• Chapter 10: Influence of Feedstocks on Performance and Products of Processes
• Chapter 11:
• Chapter 12:
• Chapter 13:
• Chapter 14:
• Chapter 15:
• Chapter 16:
• Chapter 17:
• Index
• End User License Agreement