MODERN

BIOENERGY

TECHNOLOGY

Technology and

Environmental Impact of

Biomass & Biofuels

R & D NEEDED

Technology

• Biomass technology today serves many markets that were developed with fossil fuels and modestly reduces their use.

• Uses - Industrial process heat and steam, Electrical power generation, Transportation fuels (ethanol and biodiesel) and other products.

• Primary focus of the Biomass Program – development of advanced technologies.

Current Focus

Platform technologies:

• Sugar Platform Technology

• Thermochemical Platform Technology

Bio-refinery

• A facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass.

• Analogous to today's petroleum refineries

• It is based on the “Sugar Platform“ and the “Thermochemical Platform“

Gasohol & Biodiesel

Bio-diesel

• Made by transforming animal fat or vegetable

oil with alcohol .

• Fuel is made from rapeseed (canola) oil or soybean oil or recycled restaurant grease.

• Directly substituted for diesel either as neat fuel or as an oxygenate additive

Modified Waste Vegetable Fat

• Designed for general use in most compression ignition engines .

• The production of MWVF can be achieved in a continuous flow additive process.

• It can be modified in various ways to make a 'greener' form of fuel

E-Diesel

• Uses additives in order to allow blending of ethanol with diesel.

• Ethanol blends of 7.7% to 15% and up to 5%

• Additives that prevent the ethanol and diesel from separating at very low temperatures or if water contamination occurs.

Jatropha

• Biodiesel from Jatropha

• Seeds of the Jatropha nut is

crushed and oil is extracted

• The oil is processed and

refined to form bio-diesel.

Biogas & Synthesis Gas

Gasification Technology

• Gobar gas Production

• Biogas

• Synthesis gas

Gasification

• A process that uses heat, pressure, and steam to convert materials directly into a gas composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

• Gasification technologies rely four key engineering factors

1. Gasification reactor atmosphere (level of oxygen or air content).

2. Reactor design.

3. Internal and external heating.

4. Operating temperature.

Gasification

• Typical raw materials - coal, petroleum-based materials, and organic materials.

• The feedstock is prepared and fed, in either dry or slurried form, into a sealed reactor chamber called a gasifier.

• The feedstock is subjected to high heat, pressure, and either an oxygen-rich or oxygen-starved environment within the gasifier.

Raw Materials for Gasification

Gasification

• Products of gasification :

* Hydrocarbon gases (also called syngas).

* Hydrocarbon liquids (oils).

* Char (carbon black and ash).

• Syngas is primarily carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane

Gasifier Plant

Gasifier Plant

Types of Gasifiers

• Updraft Gasifier

Types of Gasifiers

• Downdraft Gasifier

Types of Gasifiers

• Twin-fire Gasifier

Types of Gasifiers

• Crossdraft gas producers

Gobar gas

• Gobar gas production is an anaerobic process

• Fermentation is carried out in an air tight, closed cylindrical concrete tank called a digester

Wood

• Domestic heating with wood is still by far the largest market for bio-energy

• Dramatic improvements of technology in domestic heating equipment

• Improved tiled stoves, advanced logwood boilers, woodchip boilers, pellet boilers and pellet stoves.

• Pourable wood-based fuel is also available

Tiled stoves

Pellet Boilers and Stoves

Logwood boiler

Woodchip boilers

Environmental Concerns

• Air Pollution

• Soil Deterioration

Air Concerns

• Biomass processing technologies and biofuels use have the

potential to increase emissions of ozone precursors

o Increase in Nox emissions

•Excessive inhalation of ethanol is harmful

•Combustion of ethanol would result in increased atmospheric

concentrations of carcinogens

• Emission of relatively large sized particulate matter

Soil Concerns

• Burning biomass deprives local eco-systems of nutrients

• Production of dedicated energy crops renders land fallow

• Reduced land availability for cattle grazing

•Increased use of pesticides and fertilizers to produce energy

crops contaminate ground and surface water

o Affects fish and wildlife

Environmental Benefits

•Reduction of waste

• Extremely low emission of greenhouse gases compared to

fossil fuels

• Ethanol is Carbon neutral and forms a part of the carbon cycle

• Growing variety of crops increases bio-diversity

Socio-Economic Benefits

• Helps developing economies by promoting agrarian

communities

• Increase in jobs

• Increase in trade balance (Indian perspective) due to lesser

dependence on foreign resources

BIO FUELS

THE WORLD SCENARIO

BRAZIL

•World leader in production and export of

ethanol.

•Ethanol produced per day equivalent to

200,000 barrels of gasoline.

•24% blend ethanol mandatory.

•Competitiveness

•Bio diesel initiatives underway

U.S.A.

• Ethanol : a big boost to economy

• E85 sells cheaper than gasoline

• Currently production aimed at 4.5 Billion gallons/yr

• MTBE phased out in many states

• Soya bean main source of biodiesel

E.U.

• Rapeseed main source of bio diesel

• 3-15% blended petrol

• France: Bio diesel exempted from domestic tax

• Germany: Sales of bio diesel 99 million US gallons

• Rise of SVO as domestic fuel

The Significant Others

• China: 3rd largest producer of ethanol

producing 220,000 tons of ethanol, exporting

90,000 tons in 2000.

• In southeast Asia, the Jatropha tree is used

as a significant fuel source

• Malaysia and Indonesia are starting pilot-

scale production from palm oil.

India

• Sources of ethanol: • Sugarcane

• Molasses

• Agricultural waste

• Low average cost of Rs.18/litre projected

• Annual production capacity of 1.5 Billion

litres

• Sources of biodiesel:

• Honge

• Jatropha

• High capital, broad scale production plan initiated

• Cost per liter projected at Rs. 27

India (Contd.)

Bio Mass

• Biomass already supplies 14 % of the world’s primary energy consumption. On average, biomass produces 38 % of the primary energy in developing countries.

• USA: 4% of total energy from bio mass, around 9000 MW

• INDIA is short of 15,000 MW of energy and it costs about 25,000 crores annually for the government to import oil.

• Bio Mass from cattle manure, agricultural waste,

forest residue and municipal waste.

• Anaerobic digestion of livestock wastes to give bio

gas

• Digester consumes roughly one third the power it’s

capable of producing.

• Fertilizers as by product.

• Average electricity generation of 5.5kWh per cow

per day!!

Methanol is synthesized from syngas that is produced via

steam reforming of natural gas. Catalytic methanol synthesis

from syngas is a classic high- temperature, high-pressure,

exothermic, equilibrium limited synthesis reaction with overall

conversion efficiency of over 99%.

Removing the large excess heat of reaction and overcoming

the thermodynamic constraint are challenges to overcome in

commercial methanol synthesis. Methanol converter designs

are of two categories - adiabatic or isothermal reactors.

Conversion of biomass into liquid transportation fuels via

Fischer– Tropsch synthesis is one of the promising

thermal-chemical routes.

Biomass gasification, is the upstream step; with the

cleaning process, the organic and inorganic impurities,

such as tar, sulfur, chloride, and oxygen, will need to be

removed to meet requirements in the following catalytic

conversion.