Biomass Energy

Biomass Energy (or Biomass Power) is the carbon neutral electricity generated from renewable organic waste (Biomass). This organic waste can include scrap lumber, forest debris, agricultural harvest waste, and other industry byproducts. In Biomass Power plants, wood waste or other waste is burned to produce steam that runs a turbine to make electricity, or that provides heat to industries and homes.

Biomass is the quantity of living material of plant or animal origin that is a carbon based and composed of a mixture of organic molecules containing hydrogen, usually including atoms of oxygen, nitrogen and also small quantities of other atoms, including alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metals. These metals are often found in functional molecules such as the porphyrins which include chlorophyll which contains magnesium.

Bioenergy is the renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources that is the complex carbohydrates in organic material into energy.

Biotechnology is the integration of natural and engineering sciences which specialised the chemical engineering or biological engineering to develop technologies and products that uses living organisms and molecular biology to improve the human lives and health of our planet. The Biotechnology is applied in genomics, medicine and pharmaceuticals, food production, and the production of biofuels. The Biotechnology have been using to make useful food products, such as bread and cheese, and to preserve dairy products from approximately 6,000 years ago, and a term of the Biotechnology was first used by Károly Ereky in 1919, meaning the production of products from raw materials with the aid of living organisms. (Refer to the Bioprocess Engineering (or Biochemical Engineering))

Bioenergy is a source of energy from the organic material that makes up plants, known as biomass. Biomass contains carbon absorbed by plants through photosynthesis. When this biomass is used to produce energy, the carbon is released during combustion and simply returns to the atmosphere, making modern bioenergy a promising near zero-emission fuel. Modern bioenergy is the largest source of renewable energy globally today, accounting for 55% of renewable energy and over 6% of global energy supply. The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario sees a rapid increase in the use of bioenergy to displace fossil fuels by 2030. Use of modern bioenergy has increased on average by about 3% per year between 2010 and 2022 and is on an upward trend. More efforts are needed to accelerate modern bioenergy deployment to get on track with the NZE Scenario, which requires deployment to increase by 8% per year between 2022 and 2030, while simultaneously ensuring that bioenergy production does not incur negative social and environmental consequences. (Source: IEA Tracking Bioenergy)

Global biomass electricity capacity expanded 8.5 GW in 2019, the second-highest level of annual additions on record. China accounted for 60% of last year’s new capacity, primarily made up of energy-from-waste projects. The next-largest market, Japan, was one-tenth of the size of the Chinese market. (Source: IEA Renewable 2020)

Biocapacity is an estimate of the production of certain biological materials and renewable resources such as natural resources.

Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi.

Biodiesel is a vegetable oil or animal fat-based diesel fuel that is created through the transesterification of fat: Various mixtures of 2%, 5%, 20%, and 100%.

Biofuel (Biomass Fuel) is any fuel that is derived from directly or indirectly from organic material including the plant material and animal waste such as bioethanol from sugar cane or corn; charcoal or woodchips; and biogas from anaerobic decomposition of wastes. (e.g., Bioethanol; Biodiesel; Biogas; Biojet Fuel; Cellulosic Ethanol, etc.) The Biofuel production has challenges associated with land use competition with food crops, concerns about deforestation and habitat destruction, and the energy and resource input required for their production.

Biofuel Generations are classified into first, second, third and fourth generations that are characterised by the sources of biomass, limitations as a renewable source of energy, and technological progress. The First Generation Biofuel comes from a food source biomass. The Second Generation Biofuel comes from non-food biomass. The Third Generation Biofuel is an alternative fuel that is produced from algal biomass. The Fourth Generation Biofuel uses genetically modified algae to enhance biofuel production.

First Generation Biofuel comes from a food source biomass, such as corn, soy, and sugar cane, etc. These biofuels are made through fermentation or chemical processes that converts the oils, sugars, and starches in the biomass into liquid fuels including ethanol and biodiesel. The First Generation Biofuel is classified: use the food resources; ethanol production (minimum benefits from the carbon emissions perspective); requirement of land to grow resources. The First Generation Biofuel production has contributed to recent increases in world prices for food and animal feeds.

Second Generation Biofuel is any biofuel produced from sustainable feedstock which is not diverted from food biomass, either in animal or human food chains. The Second Generation Biofuel can be manufactured from various types of non-food biomass that is the plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel, and also generate higher energy yields per acre than a First Generation Biofuels.

Third Generation Biofuel is an alternative fuel that is produced from algal biomass which can be grown using sewage, wastewater, and saltwater, such as oceans or salt lakes. The algae can produce results from two characteristics of the microorganism: to produce an oil that can easily be refined into diesel or components of gasoline, and can be genetically manipulated to produce everything from ethanol and butanol to even gasoline and diesel fuel directly. (e.g., Biodiesel, Butanol, Gasoline, Methane, Ethanol, Vegetable Oil, Jet Fuel, etc.)

Fourth Generation Biofuel uses genetically modified algae to enhance biofuel production that includes the amalgamation of genomically prepared microorganisms for the enhancement of biohydrogen production processes and genetically engineered feedstock. The Biomass from the second and third generations, after genetic modification, comes under the Fourth Generation Biofuel feedstock.

Next Generation Biofuel is the renewable alternatives to gasoline, produced from non-traditional feedstocks that can result in up to 100% fewer GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions. The Next Generation Biofuel uses advanced conversion technologies to create biofuels from widely available, largely non-food biomass, such as wheat straw, corn stover, wood residue and switchgrass, and non-traditional feedstocks such as waste oils and animal fats.

Biogas is a combustible gas produced by the breakdown of organic matters in the absence of oxygen.

Biogasification or Biomethanization is the process of decomposing the majority of plant material with anaerobic bacteria to produce biogas.

Biomass Gasification is the conversion of biomass into a gas, by biogasification or thermal gasification.

Gasohol is a blend of finished motor gasoline containing alcohol at a concentration of 10 percent or less by volume.

Green Diesel is a diesel fuel derived for renewable resources, but which is produced for a standard fractionation rather than transesterification.

Traditional Biomass is the combustion of biomass in such forms as woodfuels, agricultural by-products and dung burned for cooking and heating purposes.

Bio means 1) something connected with life and living matter; 2) a biography or short biographical profile of someone.

C4 Plant fixes CO2 into a molecule containing four carbon atoms before initiating the C3 Plant Calvin-Benson cycle of photosynthesis that is abundant in tropical climates, make up about 5% of all plants on earth. It is one of three discovered the photosynthetic pathways of carbon fixation in plants. The C3 Plant is a conventional approach generated as a consequence of the C3 photosynthesis, accounting for nearly 90% of all plant species in the world. (e.g., Rice, wheat, soybeans, and all trees). Other one is the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis that is a pathway to save water and reduce photorespiration while growing in dry areas.

Energy Crops are the plants grown as a low-cost and low-maintenance harvest used to make biofuels including food crops such as corn and sugarcane, and non-food crops such as poplar trees and switchgrass.

Enzyme is a biological catalyst that is a protein and functions as a catalyst for a chemical reaction.

Fuel Ethanol is the ethanol that is intended for fuel that uses the blends of up to 10 percent by volume anhydrous ethanol (less than 1 percent water).

Xerophyte is a plant that can survive with very little water, such as a desert or an ice- or snow-covered region in the Alps or the Arctic. (e.g., Cacti, Pineapple, Gymnosperm plants, etc.) The Xerophytic Plants with high potential for the First Generation biodiesel production. (Refer to the Biofuel Generations)