ENERGY FROM BIOMASS

SOURCES, CHARACTERISTICS, CLASSIFICATION, PROPERTIES, CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING TREE

SPECIES FOR ENERGY PLANTATIONS

BIOMASS

• Biomass is material derived from plant and animal sources.

• Forestry, Agriculture, Urban and Industrial Waste Disposables are sources of biomass that may be converted into biofuels.

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• Biomass contributes about 14% of the world's energy (55EJ or 25 M barrels oil equivalent). This offsets 1.1 Pg C of net CO2 emissions annually.

• Biomass based energy in developing countries: About 90% in countries such as Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda About 45% in India, 28% in China and Brazil

On a global basis

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14% in Austria, 20% in Finland and 18% in

Sweden.

•It represents about 4% of the primary energy use

in both the EU and USA.

• In the EU this is equivalent to 2 EJ/year of the

estimated total consumption

54 EJ. Estimates show a likely potential in

Europe in 2050 of 9.0-13.5 EJ depending on land

areas, yields, and recoverable residues,

representing about 17-30% of projected total

energy

In European industrial countries / EU /USA:

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Share of bio-energy in primary energy consumption in India

In India, the share of bio-energy was

estimated at around 36 % to 46 % of the

total primary energy consumption in 1991

[Ravindranath and Hall, 1995], and has come down

to around 27 % in 1997 [Ravindranath et al., 2000].

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Rural India & bio-energy

• Before the advent of fossil fuels, energy needs for all activities were met by renewable sources such as solar, biomass, wind, animal and human muscle power.

• It is interesting to note that in rural India, traditional renewables such as biomass and human and animal energy continue to contribute 80 % of the energy consumption [MNES, 2001].

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Fuelwood alone accounts for about 60% of the total fuel in

the rural areas. In urban areas, the consumption pattern is

changing fast due to increased availability of commercial

fuel (LPG, kerosene, and electricity). During 1983–1999,

the consumption of traditional fuel declined from 49% to

24% and LPG connection to households increased from

10% to 44%. Developments in the petroleum sector

facilitate the availability of LPG and kerosene, the two

most important forms of energy preferred as substitutes

for fuelwood in households for cooking.

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Problems in use of bio-fuels

Traditional biomass use is characterized by

• low efficiency of devices, scarcity of fuelwood, drudgery associated with the devices used,

• environmental degradation (such as forest degradation) and low quality of life.

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India has over two decades of experience of implementing

bioenergy programmes. The Ministry of Non-conventional

Energy Sources (MNES), the prime mover of the

programmes in India, has now responded with a

comprehensive renewable energy policy to give a

further fillip to the evolving sector. The need for climate

change mitigation provides an opportunity for promoting

the renewable energy (RE) sector. This calls for an

assessment of the policy barriers to the spread of

bioenergy technologies (BETs) in India.

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• The experience shows that despite several financial

incentives and favourable policy measures, the rate of

spread of BETs is low because of the existence of

institutional, technical, market and credit barriers.

• These barriers are by and large known, but what still

remains to be understood is the type and size of barriers

from the stakeholders’ perspective, which varies for a

given technology and the stakeholder.

• Policy options suggested to overcome such barriers

include:

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Barriers:

(1) rational energy pricing,

(2) incentives to promote private sector participation,

(3) institutions to empower and enable community participation,

(4) financial support for large-scale demonstration programmes and for

focused research and development on BETs for cost reduction and

efficiency improvement, and finally,

(5) favourable land tenurial arrangements to promote sustained

biomass supply.

The global mechanisms for addressing climate change such as the

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Global Environment

Facility (GEF) provide additional incentives to promote BETs.

•Offer opportunities to conserve biomass

through efficiency improvements, and for

conversion to electricity and liquid and

gaseous fuels.

• Bio-energy technologies based on

sustained biomass supply are carbon

neutral and lead to net CO2 emission

reduction if used to substitute fossil fuels.

Modern Bio Energy Technologies

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Sources of bio-fuels

Primary:

• Forestry-Dense, Open; Social Forestry

• Agriculture, Animal Husbandry,

• Marine

Secondary:

• Industry,

• Municipal Waste

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Forest resource base-India

• 1 % of World's forests on 2.47 % of world's geographical area

• Sustaining 16 % of the world's population and 15 % of its livestock population

• Forest area cover—63.3 mill. hectares, is 19.2% of the total geographical area of India.

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Causes of tremendous pressure on Forest resource base

• Exponential rise in human and livestock population

• increasing demand on land allocation to alternative uses such as agriculture, pastures and development activities.

• Insufficient availability, poor purchasing power of people in rural areas for commercial fuels like kerosene & LPG

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• A minimum of 33 % of total land area under

forest or tree cover from present 19.2%

cover.

•Recognize the requirements of local people

for timber, firewood, fodder and other non-

timber forest produce-- as the first charge on

the forests,

• The need for forest conservation on the

broad principles of sustainability and

people’s participation.

The National Forest Policy

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15.5 m. ha of degraded forest land has natural root

stock available, which may regenerate given proper

management under the JFM

•Another 9.5 m. ha is partially degraded with some

natural rootstock, and another six m. ha is highly

degraded. These last two categories together

constitute another 15.5 m. ha, which requires

treatment through technology-based plantation of

fuel, fodder and timber species with substantial

investment and technological inputs.

Joint Forest Management system.

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• Fuelwood and fodder plantations to meet

the requirements of rural and urban

populations.

•Plantations of economically important

species (through use of high-yielding clones)

on refractory areas to meet the growing

timber requirement.

• Supplementing the incomes of the tribal

rural poor through management and

development of non-timber forest products.

The emphasis will be on:

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• Developing and promoting pasture on suitable

degraded areas.

• Promoting afforestation and development of

degraded forests by adopting, through micro-

planning, an integrated approach on a watershed

basis.

• Suitable policy initiatives on rationalization of tree

felling and transit rules, assured buy-back

arrangements between industries and tree

growers, technology extension, and incentives like

easy availability of institutional credit etc.

The emphasis will be on cont…

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To sum up, tropical India, with its adequate

sunlight, rainfall, land and labour,

is ideally suitable for tree plantations.

With the enhanced plan outlay for

forestry sector and financial support

from donor agencies, the country will

be able to march ahead towards the target

of 33 percent forest cover.

Forestry in the New Millenium:

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Integrates trees with farming, such as lines

of trees with crops growing between them

(alley cropping), hedgerows, living fences,

windbreaks, pasture trees, woodlots, and

many other farming patterns.

Agro-forestry increases biodiversity,

supports wildlife, provides firewood,

fertilizer, forage, food and more, improves

the soil, improves the water, benefits the

farmers, benefits everyone.

Agro-forestry

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Energy Plantation: Growing trees for their fuel

value

• ‘Wasteland’-- not usable for agriculture and cash crops, useful for a social forestry activity

• A plantation that is designed or managed and operated to provide substantial amounts of usable fuel continuously throughout the year at a reasonable cost-- 'energy plantation'

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Criteria for energy plantation

• 'Wasteland‘--sufficient area, not usable for agriculture and cash crops, available for a social forestry activity

• Tree species favorable to climate and soil conditions

• Combination of harvest cycles and planting densities that will optimize the harvest of fuel and the operating cost--12000 to 24000 trees per hectare.

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Criteria for energy plantation-continued

• Multipurpose tree species-fuel wood supply & improve soil condition

• Trees that are capable of growing in deforested areas with degraded soils, and withstand exposure to wind and drought

• Rapid growing legumes that fix atmospheric nitrogen to enrich soil

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Criteria for energy plantation-continued

• Species that can be found in similar ecological zones

• Produce wood of high calorific value that burn without sparks or smoke

• Have other uses in addition to providing fuel -- multipurpose tree species most suited for bio-energy plantations or social forestry

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Indian TREES / WOOD:

• Leucaena leucocephala (Subabul)

• Acacia sp (Babool)

• Casurina sp

• Derris indica (Pongam)

• Eucalyptus sp

• Sesbania sp

• Prosopis juliflora

• Azadiracta indica (Neem)

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Forage legume = vegetable,

• Regeneration of earthworm populations in a

degraded soil by natural and planted fallows under

humid tropical conditions

• Use of Leucaena leucocephala: Fodder,

fuelwood, erosion control, nitrogen fixation,

alley cropping, staking material

• Ntrogen fixation legume: Due to Leucaena

leucocephala crop wasteland is reclaimed

Leucaena leucocephalaCrop Use:

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HYDROCARBON PLANTS, OIL PRODUCING SHRUBS:

• Hydrocarbon-- Euphorbia group

• & Euphorbia Lathyrus

• OIL Shrubs-- Euphorbia Tirucali

• Soyabean

• Sunflower

• Groundnut

• Jatropa

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Classification of biomass based on physicochemical properties:

• WOODY,

• NON-WOODY(cultivated),

• WET [AQUEOUS] ORGANIC WASTE

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Physical Properties of Solid Biomass :

• Moisture Content,

• Particle Size and Size distribution

• Bulk Density & Specific gravity

• Higher Heating Value

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Chemical Composition of Solid Biomass :

• Total Ash %,

• Solvent soluble %,

• Water Soluble %,

• Lignin %,

• Cellulose %,

• Hemi-cellulose %

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Elemental Composition:

• Carbon

• Hydrogen

• Oxygen

• Nitrogen

• Sulphur

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Properties of Wet and Biodegradable biomass:

• C O D value

• B O D value

• Total dissolved solids

• Volatile solids

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BIOENERGY SYSTEMS

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BIOMASS UTILIZATION

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The promotion of energy using biomass available

in form of natural waste such as agricultural

residue, sugarcane bagasse, banana stems,

organic effluents, cattle dung, night soil, fuelwood

and twigs holds considerable promise. A National

Programme on Biomass Power/Cogeneration was

launched to optimise the use of a variety of

forestry-based and agro-based residues for power

generation by the adoption of state-of-the-art

conversion technologies.

Reference book from T. E. R. I.

Chapters 12 to15

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Reference book Chapters 12 to15

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The Energy and Resources Institute