Recent Advances in Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass

Ashok Pandey, Thallada Bhaskar, Michael Stöcker, Rajeev Sukumaran

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780444632906
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Renewable Power Resources
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book provides general information and data on one of the most promising renewable energy sources: biomass for its thermochemical conversion. During the last few years, there has been increasing focus on developing the processes and technologies for the conversion of biomass to liquid and gaseous fuels and chemicals, in particular to develop low-cost technologies.

This book provides date-based scientific information on the most advanced and innovative processing of biomass as well as the process development elements on thermochemical processing of biomass for the production of biofuels and bio-products on (biomass-based biorefinery). The conversion of biomass to biofuels and other value-added products on the principle biorefinery offers potential from technological perspectives as alternate energy.The book covers intensive R&D and technological developments done during the last few years in the area of renewable energy utilizing biomass as feedstock and will be highly beneficial for the researchers, scientists and engineers working in the area of biomass-biofuels- biorefinery.

• Provides the most advanced and innovative thermochemical conversion technology for biomass
• Provides information on large scales such as thermochemical biorefinery
• Useful for researchers intending to study scale up
• Serves as both a textbook for graduate students and a reference book for researchers
• Provides information on integration of process and technology on thermochemical conversion of biomass

I

General

Chapter 1

Advances in Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass—Introduction

Thallada Bhaskar^a; Ashok Pandey^b,* ^a CSIR—Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, India
^b CSIR—National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Trivandrum, India
^* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

There has been an increase in the demand for renewable sources of energy due to the doubts around the availability and fluctuating prices of fossil fuels. Climate change concerns due to greenhouse gas emissions from using coal, natural gas and crude oil have led to the shift towards biomass. The chapter starts with the world energy demand and supply followed by the biofuel policies in various countries. It is followed by the availability of biomass all over the world and the various methods of thermo-chemical conversion such as pyrolysis, gasification, liquefaction, carbonization and combustion. The concept of biorefinery in terms of rural and centralised biorefineries has been explained. The chapter concludes with the scientometric data on the various thermochemical methods of conversion.

Keywords

world energy scenario

biomass

biofuel policies

thermo-chemical methods of conversion

scientometric data

pyrolysis

gasification

1.1 World Energy Demand and Supply/Preamble

Energy improves the life condition and its consumption is directly related to the growth of any nation. Technological and scientific progress has undoubtedly been pushed by the exploitation of fossil carbon. These natural resources have been generated over millions of years underground under extreme pressure and temperature. Biomass has been produced by photosynthesis capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. The stalling plants and organisms have been converted in subsequent geochemical processes into coal, petroleum, and natural gas stored in geological formations. Today, this pocket of sunlight feeds our society in terms of fuels, chemicals, and materials, constrained only by available technologies to extract carbon from its reservoir. Given the seemingly unlimited availability of fossil carbon, the industrial value chains have been geared toward petroleum and natural gas as raw materials for the production of carbon-based products in the past. The exploitation of fossil carbon proceeds faster than its regeneration in the natural carbon cycle. The accelerating carbon depletion not only reflects the growing world population, but also the globally improving living standard [1].

The International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO2013) projects that the world energy consumption will grow by 56% between 2010 and 2040. Total world energy use is forecasted to rise from 524 quadrillion British thermal units (Btus) in 2010 to 630 quadrillion Btus in 2020 and to 820 quadrillion Btus in 2040. Much of the growth in energy consumption occurs in countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), known as non-OECD countries, where demand is driven by strong, long-term economic growth. Energy use in non-OECD countries is predicted to increase by 90%; in OECD countries, the increase is 17%. Renewable energy and nuclear power are the world’s fastest growing energy sources, each increasing by 2.5% per year. The industrial sector continues to account for the largest share of delivered energy consumption. The world industrial sector is still projected to consume more than half of global delivered energy in 2040. Given current policies and regulations limiting fossil fuel use, worldwide energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise from about 31 billion metric tons in 2010 to 36 billion metric tons in 2020 and then to 45 billion metric tons in 2040, a 46% increase.

For the past two decades, China and India have been among the world’s fastest growing economies. From 1990 to 2010, China’s e...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Preface
• I: General
• II: Primary Processes
• III: Secondary Processes
• Index