Biomass Conversion Technologies

There are a number of technological options available to make use of a wide variety of biomass types as a renewable energy source. Conversion technologies may release the energy directly, in the form of heat or electricity, or may convert it to another form, such as liquid biofuel or combustible biogas. While for some classes of biomass resource there may be a number of usage options, for others there may only one appropriate technology.

Thermal conversion: These are processes in which heat is the dominant mechanism to convert the biomass into another chemical form. The basic alternatives are separated principally by the extent to which the chemical reactions involved are allowed to proceed

• Combustion
• Gasification
• Pyrolysis

Energy created by burning biomass (fuel wood) is particularly suited for countries where the fuel wood grows more rapidly, e.g. tropical countries. Biomass cofiring with coal, by contrast, typically occurs at efficiencies near those of the coal combustor (30–40%, HHV basis).

There are a number of other less common, more experimental or proprietary thermal processes that may offer benefits such as hydrothermal upgrading (HTU) and hydroprocessing. Some have been developed for use on high moisture content biomass, including aqueous slurries, and allow them to be converted into more convenient forms.

Applications of thermal conversion

• Combined heat and power (CHP)
• Co-firing

Chemical conversion          :A range of chemical processes may be used to convert biomass into other forms, such as to produce a fuel that is more conveniently used, transported or stored, or to exploit some property of the process itself.

In most cases, the first step involves gasification, which step generally is the most expensive and involves the greatest technical risk. Biomass is more difficult to feed into a pressure vessel than coal or any liquid. Therefore, biomass gasification is frequently done at atmospheric pressure and causes combustion of biomass to produce a combustible gas consisting of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and traces of methane. This gas mixture, called a producer gas, can provide fuel for various vital processes, such as internal combustion engines, as well as substitute for furnace oil in direct heat applications. Because any biomass material can undergo gasification, this process is far more attractive than ethanol or biomass production, where only particular biomass materials can be used to produce a fuel. In addition, biomass gasification is a desirable process due to the ease at which it can convert solid waste (such as wastes available on a farm) into producer gas, which is a very usable fuel.

Biochemical conversion: As biomass is a natural material, many highly efficient biochemical processes have developed in nature to break down the molecules of which biomass is composed, and many of these biochemical conversion processes can be harnessed.

Biochemical conversion of biomass involves use of bacteria, microorganisms and enzymes to breakdown biomass into gaseous or liquid fuels, such as biogas or bioethanol. The most popular biochemical technologies are anaerobic digestion (or biomethanation) and fermentation. Anaerobic digestion is a series of chemical reactions during which organic material is decomposed through the metabolic pathways of naturally occurring microorganisms in an oxygen depleted environment. Biomass wastes can also yield liquid fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol, which can be used to replace petroleum-based fuels.

Biochemical conversion makes use of the enzymes of bacteria and other micro-organisms to break down biomass. In most cases micro-organisms are used to perform the conversion process

• Anaerobic digestion
• Fermentation
• Composting

Other chemical processes: Converting straight and waste vegetable oils into biodiesel i.e. Transesterification

Electrochemical conversion – In addition to combustion, bio-mass or bio-fuels can be directly converted to electrical energy via electrochemical oxidation of the material. This can be performed directly in a direct carbon fuel cell, direct ethanol fuel cell or a microbial fuel cell. The fuel can also be consumed indirectly via a fuel cell system containing a reformer which converts the bio-mass into a mixture of CO and H2 before it is consumed in the fuel cell