Energy and Environment Outlook

INDEX
S.NO TOPICS PAGE.NO
Week 1
1 Lec 1 : Energy and Environment scenario 3
2 Lec 2 : Need for biomass based industries 41
Week 2
3 Lec 3 : Biomass basics 72
4 Lec 4 : Dedicated energy crops 112
5 Lec 5 : Oil cropns and microalgae 156
6 Lec 6 : Enhancing biomass properties 198
Week 3
7 Lec 7 : Basic concepts and types 242
8 Lec 8 : Feedstocks and properties 269
9 Lec 9 : Economics and LCA 308
Week 4
10 Lec 10 : Barriers and Types 342
11 Lec 11 : Dilute acid, alkali, ozone 378
12 Lec 12 : Hybrid methods 422
Week 5
13 Lec 13 : Physical Processes 453
14 Lec 14 : Gasification and Pyrolysis 499
15 Lec 15 : Products and Commercial Success Stories 550
Week 6
16 Lec 16 : Types, fundamentals, equipments, applications 594
17 Lec 17 : Details of various processes 637
18 Lec 18 : Products and Commercial Success Stories 673
Week 7
19 Lec 19 : Diesel from vegetable oils, microalgae and syngas 696
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20 Lec 20 : Transesterification; FT process, catalysts 738
21 Lec 21 : Biodiesel purification, fuel properties 774
Week 8
22 Lec 22 : Biooil and biochar production, reactors 824
23
Lec 23 : Factors affecting biooil, biochar production, fuel properties
characterization 867
24 Lec 24 : Biooil upgradation technologies 909
Week 9
25
Lec 25 : Microorganisms, current industrial ethanol production
technology 953
26 Lec 26 : Cellulase production, SSF and CBP 989
27
Lec 27 : ABE fermentation pathway and kinetics, product recovery
technologies 1020
Week 10
28 Lec 28 : Biohydrogen production, metabolics, microorganisms 1060
29 Lec 29 : Biogas technology, fermenter designs, biogas purification 1092
30 Lec 30 : Methanol production and utilization 1126
Week 11
31
Lec 31 : Biomass as feedstock for synthetic organic chemicals, lactic
acid, polylactic acid 1154
32 Lec 32 : Succinic acid, propionic acid, acetic acid, butyric acid 1195
33 Lec 33 : 1,3-propanediol, 2,3-butanedioil, PHA 1225
Week 12
34 Lec 34 : Concept, lignocellulosic biorefinery 1250
35 Lec 35 : Aquaculture and algal biorefinery, waste biorefinery 1288
36 Lec 36 : Techno-economic evaluation 1326
37 Lec 37 : Life-cycle assessment 1359
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Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
Prof. Kaustubha Mohanty
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Guwahati
Lecture 01
Energy and Environment scenario
Good morning students. As you know, today is the first lecture of Biomass conversion and
Biorefinery. As I told you in our introduction slide, we will be covering two lectures basically
dedicated to introduction. So, today is the first one in which we will be covering world
energy scenario, consumption pattern, fossil fuel depletion and environmental issues. A bit
more elaborately I will tell you, how the fossil fuel depletion is taking place, what is the
energy requirement, how renewables are taking shape into big component in the next few
years of energy consumption as well as production and how the climate mitigation problems
are also taking shape with respect to global carbon dioxide sequestration.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:27)
So, as you know, there are institutions such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the US
Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA).
These are the three Agencies which record and publish energy data periodically. You will get
all these data, and, even whatever I am discussing today, mostly has been taken from their
records. Improved data and understanding of world energy consumption may reveal systemic
trends and patterns, which could help frame current energy issues and encourage movement
towards collectively useful solutions. The current policies scenario shows what happens if the
world continues along its present path, without any additional changes in policy. In this
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scenario energy demand will rise by 1.3 % each year till year 2040. So, basically this is how
it is being predicted.
This scenario charts a path fully aligned with the Paris agreement by holding the rise in
global temperatures to well below 2 °C. That is what the Paris agreement says about that
temperature rise should not be more than 2 °C. And they are still pursuing efforts and
convincing all the signatories of this agreement to limit it to 1.5 °C.
Electrification is emerging as the key solution for reducing emission. Now, you know that in
many developing countries and rather underdeveloped countries, electrification is still a big
issue; including India and most of the so-called Asian giants or giant/big economies. This is
however taking shape in a very nice way and increasingly it can be sourced at the lowest cost
from renewable energy. So, basically electricity from renewable energy; that is how it is
being envisaged.
There is something called tonne of oil equivalent (toe) which is a unit of energy and basically
defined as the amount of energy released by burning 1 tonne of crude oil.
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So let us understand the energy classification or how energy is being classified. So, primary
and secondary energy, commercial and non commercial energy, renewable and non-
renewable energy. Primary energy sources are those that are either found or scored in nature,
e.g. coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, nuclear energy etc. Secondary energy is mostly converted
in industrial utilities from other sources of energy (such as) coal and oil, all these things.
So when you talk about commercial and non-commercial energy, in commercial energy it is
electricity, lignite, coal which are commercially available. Non-commercial energy is
basically fire wood, cattle dung, agricultural waste, biogas etc. It also includes wind energy.
Then comes renewable or non-renewable sources. The renewable sources are essential
inexhaustible. E.g. wind power, solar power, geothermal, tidal, biomass and hydroelectric
power. Non-renewable energy are conventional fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gas which are
basically depleting with respect to time.
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So, if you look at the energy mix of world and India, I will be showing so many of these
statistics which are taken from these environmental energy associations and other societies.
This is from Niti Aayog. So, you can see in the energy mix of the world how much is actually
being consumed in the entire world in the form of oil and coal. So they are the most
important.
So if you look at India, 58.1 % comes from the coal and it is a very big number. The rest is
from oil and very few from hydroelectric and other sources. Now, renewables as you can see
is 2.2% and it is slowly increasing. We project that around 2035-2040 it will be more than 10
to 12%.
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Now let us understand the world total primary energy supply, consumption and demand by
source and region.
This is the world primary energy supply from 1971 to 2017 by source. If you see that round 1
(pie chart), you can see that in 2017 coal is 27%, oil is 32%. These two are more than 50%.
Rest are natural gas, bio-fuel wastes and other sources such as hydro and nuclear sources.
Similarly, if you see by source, again you can see that oil is the major one. This is the
consumption pattern by source. So oil is the major followed by natural gas, electricity and
bio-fuel.
So this is the supply in terms of region. You will see that there is something interesting. You
can see from the round 1 (pie chart) that only China accounts for 22% and OECD countries
for 38%, India actually lies in the red zone, which is non-OECD Asia. It accounts for 13.5%
out of which India is almost more than 50% which is a very significant number.
So China and India together are supplying a huge amount of energy required in the total
Global energy supply.
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So if you talk about the final consumption, again OECD is followed by China and the non-
OECD countries, the same pattern. The energy consumption pattern as well as the energy
supplied pattern is almost same.
So if you look at this particular slide, this talks about the top five countries total primary
energy supply. So, if you go by sector then you can see that the People's Republic of China
stands first followed by United States of America, India, Russian Federation and Japan. Now
if you look at the second plot that side, you can see that China’s steel consumption is actually
hugely dependent on coal followed by oil, natural gas and renewables.
And India almost follows the same pattern. However, you can see that in India the
renewables are increasing day by day. That is very interesting and that is because the
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Government of India has so much of thrust and excellent policies on actually renewables. So
if you look at this again, top 5 countries total primary energy consumption, you will see that
China’s iron and steel is followed by chemical and petrochemical, followed by non-metallic
minerals. These are basically industry based consumption patterns. And India also is
following the same trend except that the chemical and petrochemical is a very small one and
in non-specific industries it is more. Because of these non-specific, under that basically
small-scale industries comes up and you know in Indian economy small scale industries play
a very big and crucial role.
So, what if the world continues on its current path with no additional changes? So, what if we
reflect today's policy intentions and targets? This is the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) or
the New Policies Scenario (NPS); what we are going to adapt basically, the NPS. There is
something called the SDS, which is basically meeting the sustainable development goals. We
call it the sustainable development scenario. So, whether it is NPS and SDS or both, this is
how actually now things are being decided.
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So, if you look at the Global total primary energy demand, that is going to have a plateau
after 2035 (projection basically), even if there is a strong population expansion as well as
economic growth. So, if you look at this, the Global total energy demand will have a
plateauing effect at 2035 or beyond 2035, primarily driven by the penetration of the
renewable energy sources into the energy mix.
As more renewables are coming into picture, they are taking a big thrust of the entire energy
supply as well as consumption pattern. So, you can understand, that is why actually there will
be a plateauing effect after 2035. So, also falling energy intensity offsets the effects of a
growing population with increasing income levels, leading to a slowdown in the energy
demand growth.
So, energy intensity actually falls as service industries take up large share of the global
economy. That is what is happening in most of the developing countries, where the service
industries are playing a big role in the economy as well as in Energy consumption basically.
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So, if we look at how the projection looks actually; so you can see that there is something
interesting here; despite a doubling of global GDP between 2016 and 2050, the global
primary energy demand actually grows by 14%. So this is a projection towards 2050, which
you can see here. So, it is the first time in history that growth in energy demand and
economic growth are decoupled. So, this is very interesting. The first uptake of renewables is
a key driver as they often substitute for fossil fuel based generation technologies with low
efficiency.
So, renewables complemented by nuclear, nuclear power, basically, will almost double their
share in the overall energy mix (from 19% to 34%) and will provide more than half of the
electricity by 2035. So, what we understand from this particular slide is that, renewables
along with nuclear power is going to substitute almost 50% of the total energy supply after
2035 in most of the countries.
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So if you have an understanding of the total primary energy supply by 2040; this is a
prediction. You can see that, if you look at this slide, coal is continuously getting depleted.
And similarly, the natural gas though it is taking a shift after 2035. It will slowly it will come
down. Similarly, there are other sectors also.
And if you look at the sector wise, so we will understand that in a sustainable development
scenario, industry, transport, building and agriculture, these are the major shares. And if we
look at the new policies scenario, it is all the same thing; only the net amount or the net
percentage varies a little. Otherwise they easily complement each other.
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So this is the global energy demand in stated policy scenario. So you can see that, there is
something interesting, how the wood is getting decreased. Initially, long back when we
started 19th
or early 18th
century, so you can see that the wood was the primary source of
energy. Slowly it gets depleted and the use of coal has increased. Then oil has come into
picture and now slowly fossil fuels are depleting. So we have to depend more on the nuclear
and modern renewables. And those are taking the major amount of the energy supply and of
course demand also.
Global energy demand per fuel, if you look at, you see that in this particular plot, you see that
renewables and other fuels after 2035, here, every other thing, whether it is gas, oil or coal, it
is getting depleted or getting a plateauing effect after 2035. But renewables are increasing.
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So, this is what it tells us that due to the policy intervention by most of the governments
across the world, there is more focus on the development of renewables.
So that is why renewables and other fuels are taking a steady curve or the curve is increasing
and not depleting.
So this is interesting. If you look at this, it is about electricity. So, if you look at this
particular slide, this and this, you just understand that 36% of oil, 14% coal, 16% of natural
gas and only 19% electricity. As you move beyond 2016, this is up to 2016. And as projected
up to 2050, you can see electricity is going to take the centre stage with 49%. See it is 50%.
Half of the main energy source will be by electricity. Followed by the modern bio-mass, bio-
energy, what we are going to discuss in our lecture, basically in this course. So you can
understand how the policies are actually driving all the Global major economies, including
the small economies also across the world to focus on the renewables and including
electricity. So mostly it will be electricity. And again, electricity can be hydropower, it can be
nuclear power and it can be from other renewables also.
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So, this particular slide tells us that India along with China emerges as the key driver for
global energy market. Another interesting observation is about Africa; the entire African
countries, in the last one (bar graph) as you can see here. You can see here, how China and
India are taking shape in 2040 (this is a projection till 2040). This is total population by
region. So in China, India and Africa (Africa means African continent and not South Africa),
you see their projected oil demand, see their natural gas demand. India is falling in the natural
gas demand because we are not yet moving into the gas natural gas. However, China has
surpassed all of us. And if you look at the renewables, you see that India is playing an
interesting role, a very big role. And of course Africa also.
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So, we will see different energy sources, their supply, consumption and demand by source
and region. We will just quickly glance through it. So the first one is crude oil.
So you can see the world oil crude oil production from 1971 to 2018 by region. And you can
see that, OECD is of course 26.8% and Middle East (33.2%). So OECD and Middle East is
close to almost 60%. The rest is non-OECD Europe and Eurasia, then China, Asia and other
countries.
So mostly it is coming from the Gulf countries and OECD countries. If you see the final
consumption from 1971 to 2017 by sector, you can see that road, or the transportation sector
basically is almost 49.2%, followed by navigation, aviation and non-energy use sector.
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So, similarly if you see the refinery output, you can see that mostly it is coming from the
middle distillate, followed by the motor gasoline, fuel oil and then LPG, ethane, naphtha and
other products.
Let us now understand the oil demand growth, how it looks like beyond 2030-35 and till
2050. So you can see that oil demand has grown more than 1% per annum for over the last
three decades. But, this growth is expected to slow down significantly from 2020 onwards.
So from the current year onwards. The reason is due to the (fact that) more and more recent
development of the electric based systems or we are depending more on the electricity rather
than other sources of energy.
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So there is a projection of a peak in 2033. Beyond 2033 there will be a plateauing effect
again. So, by 2050 demand is projected at almost 30 million barrels per day (bpd), which is
one-third (times) below today's demand as of now. So, the chemical sector which is an
important engine of growth for the oil demand shows a slow down with respect to post 2030
projection.
Why? The reason is that, there is an increased rate of plastic recycling. That is also very
interesting now. So you know that more and more plastic recycling is happening. So that is
why there will be a plateauing effect after 2030 specially in the chemical sector.
Now when you talk about the chemical sector, more than half of the oil demand growth will
be for the next 15 years. Until 2035 chemicals is the biggest demand growth sector, and then
there will plateauing effect. So, oil use in power is the largest declining sector beyond 2030-
35. So the decline in oil demand for the road transport is modest as the EV is coming into
picture.
There are 2 things, first is EV (the electric vehicles basically). Mostly it is a huge transition in
the OECD countries. They are almost going for EV (they are already doing it). And China is
partially offset by continued use of the ICE vehicles. Though the OECD countries are going
more into the EV; however, China being one of the largest economy in Asia as well as by
population or by energy use and as well as by consumption, still China is going to continue
the ICE (that means the internal combustion engine) vehicles. So that is why in Asia it will be
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little less. Aviation growth is most prominent in non-OECD Asia and hub countries such as
Dubai.
Then, let us understand coal. So, if you look at the total final consumption from 1971 to 2017
by sector, you will see that oil is 41%, followed by electricity, natural gas and interestingly
you see biofuel, 10.7% (it’s a big one). So it is up to 2017. So understand that, beyond that
how the biomass based industries, bio-fuels that are coming from (different) other sources
(waste sources) is going to shape up our economy.
So, the world production of coal by 2018, if you look at this round one (pie chart), you can
see that China is almost half (45.6%). India comes under the non-OECD Asia (this red
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portion) (almost 30% to 35% under that is from India) and of course followed by the OECD
and other countries.
So here, if you look at this particular slide, you can understand that 40% decline in coal
demand happens despite the substantial growth of coal use in India as well as other non-
OECD Asian countries. This is basically driven by China’s decline in coal use. So that is also
very interesting right; with the decline of 53 million TJ, this is equal to two thirds of today's
total demand in China. So, all these things have driven our focus towards renewable.
Then again, we will quickly understand natural gas, the way we have discussed about coal
and oil. So Natural gas supply, consumption and demand.
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So, here you can see that natural gas production. So, mostly it is by the non-OECD European
countries and OECD countries (close to 60%). And India has a very minimal role to play
here.
So, for the final consumption; of course industry is the most important one, followed by the
residential areas and then commercial and public services.
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Then, when you talk about natural gas, so it is the only fossil fuel which grows its share of
total energy demand. You must understand that, among all the fossil fuels this is the only
fossil fuel (natural gas) whose demand is continuously growing for the various advantages it
has over other fossil fuels. So, particularly in short-term till 2025 and mid-term (2035) gas
demand continues to grow across all sectors led by industrial demand.
The plateauing of demand which is happening after 2035, as we can see here, almost there is
a plateauing of demand here. So, it is driven largely by the increasing competition from the
renewables. So, the Oil and Gas Industries’ own use of gas is expected to remain in line with
the total gas demand.
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So these are certain things (points to be noted on) how the gas demand is going to take shape
up to 2035. So in the power sectors China’s gas demand growth is much higher than any
other countries (including the US). In the Middle East (previously the growth region) gas
demand peaks before 2030. Then there is chemical sector and there is transport sector.
The next (topic) is World electricity supply, consumption and demand by source and region.
So, this is the world electricity generation from 1971 to 2017 (by fuel). So, mostly it is from
coal; just like in India, it is the National Thermal Power Plant, they supply a major portion of
the electricity followed by hydro, natural gas and nuclear. In India also nuclear is slowly
taking shape.
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And (for) the electricity generation by region: if you look at (this slide), OECD is the major
(contributor) (43%), followed by China. So OECD countries and China is almost (accounts
for) more than 60%. India comes under the non-OECD Asian countries.
This is the total electricity consumption by sector. So the industry of course (consumes) close
to 42% and rest almost 50% is (consumed by) residential, commercial and public services
(sectors).
So if we talk about nuclear electricity production, you can see that close to 75% is by OECD
countries, i.e., mostly the European countries including the United Kingdom, France and
other countries and as well as the United States also. And non OECD Europe is almost 12%.
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Asia is lagging behind in this nuclear power sector, but slowly China, India and other
countries are developing their nuclear power sector.
So this is hydroelectricity (power production). Here also, you can see that OECD and China
takes the centre stage, followed by the non-OECD Asia, in which India comes into picture
and other American and African countries too.
So this is wind electricity. Again here also, OECD takes the major share. Now, what we
understand from these few slides is, basically, when we talk about renewable electricity, the
OECD countries have already taken the lead. Now China is following them and India is also
following them. And we are sure that beyond 2035 you will see a huge change in the total
energy consumption pattern as well as source.
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So this is solar PV (photo voltaic electricity). This is one sector in which the government of
India is giving a lot of emphasis. There are a lot of subsidies available to set up a solar PV
system, including the small ones in the household sector too. Awareness is also increasing
and the Government of India is playing a big role in shaping up that particular sector.
Then, let us understand about the electrification areas across the key end uses. If you see this
particular slide, you can understand that electricity demand doubles until 2050 (this is how it
has been projected) and the policies are also like that. And it (electricity demand) grows its
(share in) total (final) energy consumption from 19% today to 29% by 2050 as demand for
other fuels are flattening (other fuels means the fossil fuels).
So, the increasing adaptation of the electric vehicles is also leading to this particular surge in
electricity demand.
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So, in transport sector electrification is driven by strong improvements in economics of the
electrical vehicles, reaching cost parity with conventional fuel vehicles in the early 2020s.
This is what, is the actual aim of the OECD countries. They want some sort of trade mark or
cut off with the cost in comparison to adaptation of EV’s or electric vehicles. So, you can see
that, for future improvement in battery Technology, (that is that is also very important) huge
amount of research is still going on. This will enable the electrification of the heavy-duty
segments which are currently the hardest to electrify. So renewables will become cheaper
than existing coal and gas in most regions before 2030. Then you will be forced to switch
over to renewables even if you are not ready to adapt. So, that is going to happen by 2030. So
a majority of the countries will reach this tipping point in the next 5 years including India.
But anyway; in India we are already into renewables and our renewable production is also
much higher than other developing countries.
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So as a consequence, by 2035, nearly half of the Global total capacity will be in solar and
wind, with China and India both taking the centre stage or they will become the main
contributor (that is very interesting). So solar and wind account for close to half of the Global
capacity by 2035. China, India and OECD countries are the major contributors.
Natural gas sees further capacity additions, particularly in North America and China. So
Global net additions of ~675 GW until 2035. So coal capacity declines, because in most of
the countries there is a decline in production of course, (that is true) as well as a decline in
adaptation or use. In India, the role of coal to supply and the rapid uptake in demand is much
smaller than in the earlier projections.
So that is actually good as solar in particular becomes more attractive alternative. As I told
you, that Government of India has given (emphasis on) the use of this policy as well as (the
government) giving so much of subsidies to setup solar PV systems, including the rooftop
solar PV systems for use in the households also.
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So, renewable generation accounts for more than 50% of the power supply post 2035. This is
where the NPS and SDS both complement each other. So in this particular slide, you can see,
how from 2030 onwards there is a huge increase in the Solar. You can see that yellow ones
(yellow part of the bar graphs) are the Solar and how it is increasing followed by the wind
and hydro. So this is how we are going to focus, including India. The major focus will be
mostly on the Solar PV systems. Then of course solar thermal is also there, wind energy,
hydro energy and nuclear energy. So all renewable sources.
Now let us just quickly understand (since this is introductory class) about the global
environmental issues. So we will talk about only the carbon dioxide emissions and climate
change.
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So the trend in long-term global warming continued in 2018, which also happened to be the
fourth warmest year on record. So, you know, since the last ten or twenty years the warmest
years basically occurred in the past 22 years. And the top four were in the last four years
alone. So that is very bad. This is according to the WMO or the World Meteorological
Organisation.
The IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C reports that, for the
decade, 2006 to 2015, the average Global temperature was 0.86 °C above the pre-industrial
baseline. For the most recent decade, i.e., 2009 to 2018, the average temperature was 0.93 °C.
So it is almost going to be 1 °C.
And for the last five years 2014 to 2018 it is 1.04 °C (above the baseline). So the last four
years consecutively 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 are the hottest or warmest years till date. So
as a result of this, there is a huge increase in the number of cyclones that is affecting the
entire northern hemisphere and north east Pacific basins as well as Indian Ocean sides also.
So in July and August of 2018, north of Arctic circle, many record high temperatures were
registered, as well as record long periods of high temperatures. Japan and Republic of Korea
saw new national heat records 41.1 °C and 41.0 °C. These are huge temperatures; they have
never witnessed in their entire life span, (I mean) the people (of) who are currently in Japan
and Korea. Eastern Australia also experience significant drought during 2018. Severe drought
affected Uruguay and northern and central Argentina in late 2017 and early 2018 leading to
heavy agricultural losses.
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Now British Columbia, Canada broke its record for the most area burned in the fire season
for the second successive year. The US State of California also suffered devastating wildfires.
These are the things we already know, right. These have all been reported in the news and we
know all these things. So these examples show that climate change is not a distant or future
problem, rather it is happening (now), since almost 2 to 3 decades.
And now this is the peak time that we are facing and so much of global climate change is
taking place.
Now, this slide will basically tell you the environmental impacts of various sources of
electricity generation. So coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, water (basically the reservoir
hydro power) and then again water (that is the streaming hydropower). So what are the
Environmental effects? If you look at wind, there is a potential of bird kills, the wind turbines
are highly visible and noise issue is also there.
Similarly, if you talk about solar, though it is very good, but there are issues regarding high
energy used in the manufacturing process when you make solar PV and then there is a toxic
Silicon tetrachloride waste. Similarly, flooding is a problem in hydropower dams; but you
know, all these so-called environmental impacts also can be properly minimised (mitigated)
if we take sufficient precautions. That is what is being done now-a-days by most of the
countries and they adapting the safety measures and latest technologies so that the impact on
the environment will be very minimal.
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If you look at the world carbon dioxide emission, you will see that oil and coal are the major
emitting sectors followed by natural gas. And China and OECD again (because they are the
largest consumers of course) are the largest emitters.
So (now), if you look at the heavy industries sector, the projection from 2019 to 2060; (let us
see the from the first one 2019, 2030, 2040, 2050 and 2060), you can see that the industries
which are unlocked emissions that is increasing. See that these are all Industries which are
emitting hugely. Slowly it (emissions) is decreasing and unlocked emissions are increasing.
Then all (only) unlock emission increased (remains). And in 2050 all (other emissions) this is
gone and 2060 that is also gone (all emissions are reduced). This is how it is projected.
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So if you look at this particular slide, it says that Global carbon emissions peak in 2024 and
there is a fall by ~20% by 2050, primarily driven by the reduction in the emission from the
coal. So coal emission is gone. Once that is gone, almost 20% to 30% of the Global carbon
dioxide emission will drop immediately. So there will be an excellent balance of the carbon
dioxide that is actually being emitted by the developed and the developing countries.
So if you look at the developing economies in Asia, there is a huge percentage (statistics
wise), other developing economies and advanced economies. So these coal based plants
basically.
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And solar is becoming the star. So you can see, this very interesting to see the how the curve
is actually increasing from 2000 to 2040 (it is prediction basically, which is going to be
absolutely true as it is). There will be absolute, the unit values may differ, but the curve will
remain so. And apart from this there are others such as wind, hydro and nuclear. Here, the
biggest problem in nuclear are the safety issues as well as the installation cost. It is a very
costly technology. But once established it is very good.
So, a carbon neutral Europe puts offshore wind in front. So this is about Europe. You see
here, in Europe there is something interesting about this bio-energy. From 2018 you see how
it is slowly increasing till 2050. Though, not a very significant jump, but the adaptation and
maintaining it is also very important. So, in Europe, the offshore wind is going to take a
major role. Solar will be less, because in Europe, you know that availability of the solar
34

power or the sunlight is much lesser than other countries, especially, with respect to the Asian
countries.
Having said that, there is no single or simple solution to reach a sustainable energy goal.
Every country is putting their efforts. A host of policies and technologies are required and it
is already there. Policies are there, technologies are also there. So to keep the climate change
targets within reach, and further technology innovation will be essential so that we do not go
beyond 1.5 °C. Though the Paris agreement says 2 °C, however most countries have agreed
that will they will try to keep it not more than 1.5 °C.
So before we end up our lecture we will quickly understand the focus of our course, i.e., the
biomass energy or the bio-energy. Let us understand what is the bio energy potential across
35

world. So, you can see that in 1980 what it was, 2015 what it was, and 2050 what it will be.
This is the worlds’ primary energy demand. And this is the bio-energy demand (its
projected). 2050c
and 2050d
, c is based on the upper limit of the amount of biomass that can
come available as a primary energy supply without affecting the supply for food crops
(basically from agricultural residues and all).
And d (which is this one) is based on the source where a typical type of agricultural
management applied is similar to the best available technology in the industrialized regions.
So, you can understand that there is a huge upsurge in the biofuels and bioenergy based
supply.
So this is the contribution of each Biomass resource category to the Global potential of
biomass for energy use in 2050. What are these different types of feedstock. We can talk
about feedstock. So, biomass production on surplus agricultural land, bio-materials, biomass
production on degraded land, agricultural residues, animal manure (dung, where you go for
biogas basically), forest residues, tertiary residues (organic waste).
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Then you can see that energy used in the transport sector, non-fossil globally. So bio fuel is
going to take almost 73% beyond 2050. Similarly, heat production also 96% (it is a huge
number) from renewables; this is 2017 data.
Domestic supply of biomass globally; so you can see how it is. So, primary solid bio-fuel is
86%, still it is same. Slowly bio-gas and liquid bio-fuels are coming into picture. So, liquid
bio-fuels are gaining more importance because of its availability. Actually availabilities can
be round the year rather (when compared to) than Biogas. Biogas, during winter has a
depleting supply.
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So biopower generation globally; you can see that this is till 2017. You can understand that
the components that are being considered are municipal waste, industrial waste, solid bio
fuels, biogas and liquid bio fuel. You see, solid bio fuel is taking the centre stage. Now
slowly liquid bio fuel will also be coming into the picture, especially in the European
countries. Whereas, in Asia it is very less, however, slowly the Asian countries also will
catch up.
Use of biomass in electricity only plants in continents in 2017. You can see that in Asia for
solid bio-fuels again there is a huge surge. And heat generation globally.
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With this we will wind up. This is liquid bio fuel production globally. So you can see bio
ethanol, bio diesel other biofuels. So this is bio ethanol, this is biodiesel. And then other
biofuels. Other biofuels can be bio oil, it can be bio ethanol, it can be bio butanol and other
bio fuels. So what we understand from today's lecture is that, no single or simple solution
exist to reach the sustainable energy goals.
So, energy policies and adjusting to new pressure and imperatives, but the overall response is
still far from adequate to meet the energy security and environmental threats the world now
faces. The oil and gas landscape is being profoundly reshaped by shale, ushering in a period
of intense competition among suppliers and adding impetus to the rethink of company
business models and strategies.
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Solar, wind, biomass technologies are transforming the electricity sector, but an inclusive and
deep transition also means tackling Legacy issue from existing infrastructure. Energy is vital
for the developing countries, and their Energy future is increasingly influential for global
trends as it undergoes the largest urbanisation the world has ever seen. One classic example
are the African countries. The way the urbanisation has taken place in African countries after
2000 is phenomenal.
And, all have a part to play but the governments must take the lead in writing the next chapter
in energy history and steering us on to a more secure and sustainable course.
So, thank you students. Thank you for listening. So the next class will be again introduction.
In the next class we will understand about Biomass, what is actually Biomass and what
actually bio mass based Industries looks like and bio-refinery concept. I will explain the bio-
refinery concept.
Thank you very much. In case you have anything to ask please feel free to write to me at
kmohanty@iitg.ac.in or please post your questions in the NPTEL Swayam portal. I will be
happy to answer that. So thank you very much.
40

Indian Institute of Technology – Guwahati
Lecture 02
Need for Biomass based industries
Good morning students. This is lecture 2 our course. So, in this lecture, today we will discuss
about the need for the Biomass based industries under a biorefinery concept. Before
discussing (about) the biorefinery, we will try to understand the basics of biomass.
So, you know Biomass is a renewable organic material, usually which comes from plants and
animals. So, some of the important or most common (or you can say may be promising)
Biomass feedstock are: grains and starch crops such as sugarcane, corn, wheat, sugar beets
and sweet potatoes etc.; agricultural residues (such as) corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw
and all these things. Then there are food wastes, basically, coming from the food processing
industries; Forestry materials (such as) logging residues, forest thinnings; then we have
animal by-products (such as) Tallow soil, fish oil, manure etc.
Then we have dedicated energy crops, (which are specific energy crops); some of them are
switchgrass, miscanthus then we have a poplar, willow etc and of course Algae. Then, Urban
and Suburban wastes. Under this MSW comes (Municipal solid waste), lawn waste,
wastewater treatment sludge and there are many other things also.
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So what is actually the importance of the biomass energy and why we were discussing. Last
class (during our introduction) we have understood that what is the importance of biomass
based energy and Biomass based industries. So, the Global energy picture is changing rapidly
in favour of renewable energy. So, according to IRENA’s global renewable energy road map,
which is called REmap 2030 - if the realizable potential of all renewable energy technologies
beyond the business as usual implement then renewable energy will be accounting for almost
36% of the total Global energy mix by 2030. So if all the governments, according to their
policies implement it then this is going to happen. So this would be equal to a doubling of the
Global renewable energy share with compared to 2010 levels.
So then biomass has an auspicious future. So by 2030 Biomass could account for 60% of
total final renewable energy used as Biomass has potential in all sectors. So Biomass based
energy and other value added chemicals or value added products can be used across all
sectors. So that is the beauty of biomass actually. So most Biomass demand today is its
traditional used for cooking and heating.
As of now also (today) whatever Biomass is being utilised, it is basically (used) for the
traditional use (for cooking as well as heating). So in 2010 more than 60% of the total Global
Biomass demand of 53 exajoules was used in residential and commercial building sectors.
Much of this was related to traditional use of biomass for cooking and heating. Biomass
demand in the manufacturing industry is almost 15%, transport sector is 9% and the power in
district heating actually it is 8%. So this is almost about one third.
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So, Biomass applications could change over time. So, global biomass demand could double
to 108 exajoules by 2030; if all its potential beyond the business as well as usual is
implemented. So, that means nearly a third of its total will be consumed to produce power
and direct heat generation. About 30% would be utilised in biofuel production (mostly for the
transport sector) and the remainder would be halved between heating applications in the
manufacturing industry and building sectors.
So Biomass use in the combined heat and power generation (CHP technology basically) will
be key to raise its share in the manufacturing industry and power sectors. Then, estimated
Global Biomass demand according to the REmap 2030, the United States, China, India,
Brazil and Indonesia (these are the five countries, which are also five big economies of the
world) are going to account for 56% of the total Biomass demand by 2030.
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Global biomass supply in 2030 is estimated to range from 97 EJ (exajoules) to 147 exajoules
per year. Approximately 40% of this will originate from the agricultural residues. So there
lies a very important information about the agricultural and forest residues and waste
materials basically. The remaining supply potential is shared between energy crops (33 to 39
exajoules) and forest products including forest residues.
So, the largest supply potential exists in Europe and Asia (including Russia). So this is
another interesting thing that, these countries are blessed with huge biomass reserves. So that
is why they will be the potential feedstock suppliers basically. International trade of biomass
would play an important role in meeting the increasing Global demand. Trade (could)
account for between 20 to 40% of the total Global demand by 2030.
Domestic supply costs of biomass is estimated to range from as low as USD 3 for agricultural
residues to as high as USD 17 GJ for the energy crops.
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There are many challenges to be addressed in the Biomass demand and supply. Having said
that, the biomass and biomass energy is everything it’s good for the economy as a biorefinery
concept and all; everything is fine, but having said that, we need to understand that there are
many challenges that need to be addressed for the Biomass demand and supply. That is the
most important bottleneck actually.
So, its international trade as well as substitution of its traditional uses in realising such high
growth rates. So, if you keep on using Biomass for cooking purposes and heating purposes,
then this is not going to help us in a roadmap; basically if you think about the 2030-2035 road
map, which most of the countries have agreed to. So what we have to do is, basically the
bioenergy demand is estimated to be doubled between 2010 and 2030, ensuring that
sustainability of biomass will gain even more importance including environmental, economic
and societal aspects.
Now, for a sustainable and affordable bioenergy system, existing National and international
initiatives and partnerships as well as energy and resource policies need to be expanded to
address the challenges across the Biomass use and supply chain. Now, while biomass
represents an important stepping stone in doubling the Global Renewable Energy share,
potential of other renewable energy sources basically should be or must be expanded.
It should be an integrated approach rather than only Biomass and Biomass; that is not going
to help in a sustainable way, right. So for that we need to expand our work on our
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government policies including subsidising many of the installation facilities, transportation
and of course, the tax will also come into picture.
Biomass energy has rapidly become a vital part of the Global renewable energy mix and
account for an ever growing share of the electric capacity added worldwide. So, now most
importantly (last class also we have discussed that) Biomass based electricity generation is
directly feeding into the grid. So these are the upcoming things that has happened. It is
happening in many countries and will happen in India too very soon.
So, traditional Biomass primarily for cooking and heating represents about 13% and is
growing slowly or even declining. The declining is a good thing for it, but declining in the
traditional uses as well as their use in more sophisticated modern Biomass based industries, is
going to help us. So, some of the recent predictions suggest that biomass energy is likely to
make up one third of the total world energy mix by 2050.
In fact, bio fuel will provide right now almost 3% of the world's total fuel for Transport
(liquid fuel basically or maybe some gaseous fuels). So, biomass energy sources and readily
available in rural and urban areas of all countries. Biomass based industries can foster rural
development, provide employment opportunities and promote biomass regrowth through
sustainable land management practices.
This is another important thing. Let us understand, that we talked about dedicated energy
crops like as I told you maybe poplar, it may be switch grass, miscanthus, whatever it is. For
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that, when I need to cultivate them, I need to grow them, I need to plant them; so where do I
plant? So, the available land for agriculture is decreasing day by day across the world due to
more and more urbanisation. We know this. It is happening in the in India also. But we need
to understand that when I wish to grow this type of energy crops, I should not use our prime
agricultural lands, rather, I will use such land which are barren or not suitable for growing the
food crops. We can use (those lands) with a little modification, upgrade them and use for
these energy crops.
Then things will be very nice. Otherwise, sustainable Land management issue will come into
picture.
So, the negative aspects of traditional Biomass utilisation in developing countries can be
mitigated by promotion of modern waste to energy technologies which provide solid, liquid
and gaseous fuels as well as well as electricity. Another hot topic nowadays, is about
conversion of the waste to energy. You might have heard about this waste-to-energy many
times. There is another term is called water energy Nexus that also is very upcoming.
So let us talk about waste to energy. So most of the wastes of Biological nature can be
converted into energy. Now, having said that, there is one technology (of course we will
discuss in detail in one of our lectures later when we discuss about the thermochemical
aspects). So I will just tell you in a nutshell. Thermochemical conversion technologies; one
such is gasification, then we have pyrolysis. These are beautiful Technologies. If we adapt
that, we get three different types of bio fuels. One is the liquid bio fuel, one is solid bio fuel
and other is a gaseous biofuel. So these technologies are available. Only we need to upgrade
ourselves to suit a particular feedstock or rather, I can say that technology should be
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developed in such a way that they can process multiple feedstock. That is the challenge
basically. So the most common technique for producing both heat and electrical energy from
Biomass wastes is direct combustion.
Thermal efficiencies as high as 80 to 90% can be achieved by advanced gasification
technology with greatly reduced atmospheric emissions. Then of course CHP is there (the
combined heat and power system) ranging from small scale technology to large scale grid
connected facility. This is what I was telling you; just technologies are available. And now
what is the emphasis is given on? Emphasis is mostly given on how to generate electricity
from Biomass and connect it to the grid.
So, biochemical processes like anaerobic digestion and sanitary landfills can also produce
Clean Energy in the form of biogas and producer gas, which can be converted to power and
heat using a gas engine.
Now let us talk about what are the advantages of biomass energy. So, bioenergy systems
offer significant possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions due to their immense
potential to replace fossil fuels in energy production. Biomass reduces emissions and
enhances carbon sequestration, since short rotation crops or forest established on abandoned
agricultural land accumulate carbon in the soil.
So this is also very interesting. That is because we know that biomass is carbon negative. The
reason is that, let us say, whatever carbon dioxide we generate by burning fuel even if it is a
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biofuel, that goes to the atmosphere. Again, we say that this carbon dioxide will be utilised by
the same feedstock materials when you are growing them. Basically it can be any energy
dedicated energy crops or any plants or maybe forest as a whole.
So, that is how the carbon cycle is supposed to be managed. And bioenergy usually provides
an irreversible mitigation effect by reducing carbon dioxide at source, but it may emit more
carbon per unit of energy than fossil fuels, unless, Biomass fuels are produced unsustainably.
So this is what we again need to understand that unless and until we produce Biomass based
fuel in a huge quantity, what will happen is that, we will be end up in producing more carbon
dioxide than we are consuming.
So biomass can play a major role in reducing the reliance on fossil fuels by making use of
thermochemical conversion Technology. I just mentioned about it (of course we will discuss
more in our subsequent lectures). So in addition, the increased utilisation of biomass based
fuel will be instrumental in safeguarding the environment, generation of new job
opportunities, sustainable development and health improvements in rural areas.
The development of efficient Biomass handling technology, improvement of agro-forestry
systems and establishment of small and large scale Biomass based power plants can play a
major role in rural development. So another important thing we need to understand is that, the
collection of such agricultural and forest wastes for the Biomass based industries is not that
easy. So rural people can be engaged for doing that. And there are many concerns about the
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transportation of such wastes to a plant where we will convert them basically to liquid and
gaseous fuels or generate electricity.
So, if we can locate the plants very near to the rural areas or the forests where these materials
are being collected, then it will be a win-win situation. So, we will save a lot of money in
transportation as well as the rural people will get some jobs and there will be some
community development also. So when compared with wind and Solar Energy, Biomass
power plant cell able to provide crucial, reliable based load generation.
This is more important. This is basically when we are talking about connecting to the grid.
There should be a proper sustainable supply. Otherwise, what will happen, today where you
are supplying one particular rate, tomorrow it will fall; that is not going to help in a
sustainable way when we talk about grid connectivity. So biomass plays a better role with
respect to wind and solar. So a large amount of energy is expended in the cultivation and
processing of crops like sugarcane, coconut and rice, which can be met by utilising energy
rich residues for electricity production.
So some of these processing, you know, use huge energy; sugarcane, coconut, rice mills (all
these things). So what is being suggested is that, there is a sugarcane waste, which is called
bagasse, then there is coconut waste, there is rice straw (all these wastes), if these wastes
which are generated at the site can be converted using suitable technologies to heat or energy,
or any such thing and maybe electricity or may be a small scale gasification plant; it can save
a lot of money basically.
So basically, it is an integrated approach. So, the waste generated at the source and treated
and converted in the same source to a value added product or you can say that, maybe to
energy. That approach will help us a lot. The integration of biomass-fueled gasifiers in coal
fired power stations would be advantages in terms of improved flexibility in response to
fluctuations in Biomass availability and lower investment costs.
So if you couple Biomass fueled gasifiers along with coal fired power station; it will help us
with 2 things; first is that, it will address the (issue of) availability of the Biomass around the
year, because coal is available to generate power. Second thing is that, we will reduce use of
coal thereby reducing the carbon dioxide generation.
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So, look at this particular biomass demand plot. This is extrapolated till 2030. Just look at the
last; look at these studies: Indonesia, then Russia, Brazil, India, China and United States. So,
these six countries mostly, even if you can consider Canada also, but I am counting these 4 to
5 countries. So just look at this particular plot. You can see that United States, China, India
and Brazil, these are the four major contributors or let us say that their demand for Biomass is
more compared to the rest of the world.
Because these countries have huge biomass reserve, as well as, they have realised the
potential of the biomass based fuels and energy and of course industries also.
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So, this is (breakdown of biomass supply) by region. Again you see Asia, the huge one here.
Basically, the contribution is coming mostly from China, India and Indonesia; then Europe
North America (in North America United States only) and then Latin America is also there.
So mostly it is coming from harvesting residues here in Asia (in which India falls). Then we
have processing residues, and of course we have fuel wood, wood residues as well as wood
waste.
Energy crops (share) is very less in Asia. However, it is so high in Europe, America and other
countries because they have started cultivating the dedicated energy crops. We are slowly
adopting it.
Then, having said about the Biomass based industries, the advantages of bioenergy and all
these things; let us now understand what are the challenges related to Biomass. So the
existing challenges of biomass supply chain related to different feedstock can be broadly
classified into four things or five things. First is operational, then economical challenge, then
social and policy and then regulatory challenges.
We will see one by one. What are operational challenges? So, feedstock unavailability;
Inefficient Resource Management and the government non-intervention approach are the key
factors hindering the expansion of the Biomass industry. Feedstock of biomass should be in
such a way that it should be available in a sustainable way throughout the year, but, can we
ensure that? Let us understand that; I am talking about rice straw or say bagasse. These are
seasonal crops. Any such crops that are seasonal, we need to understand that, of course their
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generation of waste is also seasonal. So, can we produce so much of waste, so that we can
keep it or store it for round the year application? The answer right now is, no. At least for the
Indian context, but, we need to work on that. There are policy matters, government should
interfere and make policies in such a way. And there should be Technologies, developed in
such a way that we can store these wastes for long-term use (right now that is not happening).
So, regional and seasonal availability of biomass and storage problem; this is what I already
told you. Then, pressure on transport section. Because biomass contains a huge amount of
moisture, that is why transporting waste biomass from the plantation to the production site
becomes energetically unfavourable and costly with the increase in distance. Basically
distance between the collection side and the plant.
So then, inefficiency of conversion facility, core technology and equipment shortage; now
technical barriers were resulted from the lack of standards on bioenergy systems and
equipment, especially where the energy sources are so diverse. Appropriate pre-treatment
required to prevent biodegradation and loss of heating value not only increases the production
cost, but also in equipment’s investment. So there is something called pre-treatment which
we will discuss in our subsequent lectures, what is pre-treatment and what is the importance
of it. So, we need to pre-treat the biomass according to where they are going to be used,
whether it is going to be in the thermal conversion technology or biological conversion
technology. So, depending on that we need to pre-treat the biomass. Basically fractionation
and size reduction and there are other things also.
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So then, immature industry chain; so, it is virtually impossible to get long term contracts for
consistent feedstock supply in reasonable price. So, industry will only be interested, if I am
going to supply them throughout the year in a sustainable way (the particular feedstock;
everybody is interested in a particular feedstock). So, that is not going to happen, right? But
policies should be framed and it should be implemented in such a way that industry are
favoured by implementing such techniques.
Then economic challenges; so feedstock acquisition cost; the Biomass resources are scattered
and in order to reduce the cost of transportation, biomass projects are eager to occupy land
close to the source, leading to centralisation of biomass projects. Then, limiting financing
channels and high investment and capital cost; as of now, the industries which are
implementing them, I can tell you that, there is a huge cost which is required basically for the
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capital investment; for procuring the equipment, installation, the land cost (forget about the
running cost and manpower cost). So here, the government has to intervene and make
policies in such a way that there will be GST credit, and there will be less tax on procuring
equipment. And of course there are other things apart from the subsidies.
Then social challenges; so, under social challenges there are a few things. First one is the
conflicting decision: so, decision making on selection of supplier, location, routes and
technologies is crucial and needs proper communication. So basically, which supplier you are
going to choose, whether it is reliable or not, where it is located, where is my plant located,
what are the routes or distance, how much it is going to cover for the transportation of the
feedstock from the procurement site to my plant and technologies.
So, we need to have a proper decision making system for that. So, land use issues: land use
issues lead to the loss of ecosystem preservation and the homes of indigenous people. That is
why I was just mentioning that, we should use such lands which are not at all used for the
dedicated food crops.
Then; impact on the environment: The Biomass plantation depletes nutrients from the soil,
promote aesthetic degradation, increase the loss of biodiversity. Other social impacts will
result from installation of energy farms within rural areas, like increased need of services
increased traffic etc. The potential negative social impacts appear strong enough to ignore
the benefit of new and permanent employment generation. So, if we try to develop a rural
based bio economy, then most of these issues will (should) be addressed.
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Then let us talk about the policy and regulatory challenges. At present the government is
subsidizing the domestic fuel prices which in turn makes the electricity generating cost from
conventional sources lower than the power production cost from Renewable Sources. This is
exactly what is expected from the governments. Not only from the Government of India but
from the governments of the all other countries also; that they are doing it.
So, there are no specific rules to regulate the work of utilisation of biomass resources and
there are no specific penalties for not using behaviour that should be comprehensively used.
So basically policy guidelines should be there. Governments should come up with clear cut
policies and guidelines; what is to be done and what is not to be done. If you are doing
something which is not expected, it will result in Environmental concerns on social concerns.
Then, you need to be penalized. As such, now such policies are not available. But I know that
there are coming. Soon it will be implemented in India as well as other countries also. There
is no special mechanism to manage the development of the Biomass resources industry and
there is no specialist department to manage the implementation of relevant national standards
and policies.
So all these things come under the government. These are governments’ job, basically. So I
know the government actually is coming up with so much of policies for the Biomass based
industries and there are already some existing policies, but, more needs to be done and it is
being done actually.
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Let us now understand the supply and demand framework of bio energy. You can see this
particular slide, how it is being actually depicted here. So, the land demand, land use and
energy production. So, land demand in all countries is basically based on the food demand;
for growing the food crops and of course (also) for wood demand; that means it is for either
the industrial demand for forests.
So when we talk about (land) use; so the domestic production is basically for the food and
industrial firewood and all these things plus international trade. And then, the remaining land
should be utilised for the energy crops and surplus firewood. And the energy production from
the Biomass residue, harvesting residue, processing residue, animal waste, household waste
etc.
Then primary bio energy will come from these dedicated energy crops such as sugarcane,
starch, oil crops and other cellulosic crops.
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So, if you look at the current land use and suitable area for agriculture. So this is the land use
in 2010 and that one is the potential for the crop production. So you can see that, right now
the forest is 4 billion hectares, then crop production is going on in 1.5 billion hectares. And
here, we were talking about the projection, suitable and available area that will be basically
for the dedicated energy crop production or biomass production; it will be almost around 2.7
billion hectares. So there will be a 1.4 billion hectares of surplus available land that can be
utilised.
So let us understand the relationship between the players along the value chain. This is very
interesting and very important, where you can understand that every one of us has a role to
play in this business. So all the policy makers, they will decide the policies. They may give
financial support and all these things. Then there is something called a researcher. Where
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people like me and some of you are coming into picture. What they do is, they are involved
or integrated into various sectors, whether it is a supplier, whether it is the manufacturer,
whether it is a customer.
Researcher has a big role to play in every sector. So then there is Logistics for raw Biomass
storage and transportation, and there is Logistic which is related to the bio products,
(processed products basically) for transportation and to take them to the reach of the common
people or the customers. So the researcher has a lot of role to play in the entire system; this
Biomass based industry and processing industries sector.
Let us talk about the life cycle of biomass industry. Please see where we are heading, we are
now here in the current status. You see the red one here. So that is between the initialisation
phase and the growth phase (I am talking especially about India). So we have started from the
fuel from the thermal energy sources (and) electricity. Electricity has been implemented
hugely in our country. Still there are many villages in rural areas where the electricity has not
reached.
It is going to be implemented very soon. Government of India is doing that. So then, we
move to the growth phase. In growth phase what is available? So basically there will be
increasing demand (of electricity or you can say energy) due to urbanization and
industrialization and there will be low to high value added products that will come into
picture when we pass from the initialisation phase to this particular growth phase.
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So, those products can be fertilizers, fibres, platform chemicals or other value added
products. Then we go to the maturity and decline stage. When you go to the maturity stage,
we have a constant demand. Now our demand is basically increasing. The moment you reach
here, there will be a plateauing effect and we will have a constant demand because you have
reached a mature stage.
And more or less our industrialisation or let us say the urbanisation has saturated. So, we go
for very high value added products like biochemical. Then after that there may come a
decline stage where there will be a reducing demand. And there will be no more product
innovations happening.
So here, this is the stakeholders’ interaction and role in commercialization of biomass
conversion technologies. So, in one of the slides; just 2 slides back we have discussed how
researchers are playing a role. Here also, you can see that the researchers in the top one you
see there. How they have integrated themselves into various other people basically the
supplier, customer, industry and the government.
They have completely integrated themselves along with all other stakeholders. So what do
they do? Researchers will resolve the upstream issues or harvesting issues basically. They
will provide strategies to meet the national goals as mentioned by their governments. They
provide strategies to satisfy the customer needs. And they will provide technical know-how
and expert. Then the supplier; what the supplier is supposed to do? The supplier will provide
raw material and share information.
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They provide services that meet customer need. They will obey the Regulation and policy set
and it is the long term collaboration. So, when I talk about long term collaboration that means
it’s the consistent supply. And what the government will do? The governments’ job is to
provide research funding. Governments’ job is to regulate the Biomass pricing and legal
enforcement. Then, a government must promote the importance of Sustainable development
and a government should go for financial support, whether it is an incentive, subsidy, tax
exemption like GST credit and all these things will be there.
Then there will be customer. So, the customer; what is their job? So, publicity and provide
data that (basically feedback, they should give a feedback), support green suppliers, support
green products and provide feedback on this (what I already told). And then there is the
industry, the most important. So, adapt research innovative ideas and share information, they
should have a long-term collaboration (looking for a consistent demand basically), they
should be able to beat that demand, they should generate products that meet customer needs
and obey the Regulation and policy set. So, you can understand in this particular slide, how
all the stakeholders, all of us, you, me, government, the suppliers, the industry people. So, all
of us have a role to play as a stakeholder in this particular Biomass conversion business.
Let us understand the problems of biomass large scale supply. So one of the biggest problems
related to Biomass large scale supply is the energy density. Briefly if Biomass moisture of
conventional wood is 30%, what it means? It means that every one 1 ton of wood or the
Biomass that I transport, I am transporting almost 300 kg of water. So it is huge, it is waste
basically and I am paying a heavy price for the transportation.
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So additionally, Biomass feedstock shape; so it is also very important. So whether it is
chipped, pelletized, rounded, baled, all these things will strongly influence the bulk density
and affect transportation economics. So we should also look into that. Then, in addition to the
bulk and energy density, large-scale Biomass supply is affected by a wide range of
bottlenecks, including raw material initial cost, biomass producers’ involvement and
environmental regulation and sustainability.
Now, finding solutions for all these problems means finding the solution for the creation of
the future biomass commodity in worldwide.
So are there are problems (of course), but there are solutions also. So, let us understand what
are the problems and what can be the solution. So, high quality Biomass is considerable but
limited expensive not always sustainable. So what can be the solution? Utilisation of Agro-
forestry residue; that can be a sustainable solution. High availability is there and fully
environmentally sustainable.
What is the other problem? Agro-forestry residues have lower quality and higher Micro
elements (that is true actually), calcium, magnesium and all these mineral compounds
basically. So what can be the solution? The blending of different Biomass feedstock to
arrange suitable average composition. So, do not go for a single stock. It is not going to help
us in a sustainable way. We should always go for multiple feedstock.
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So that is why, the technology should be developed in such a way that, basically our process
or equipment or let us say the process itself is capable enough to take (utilize) multiple
feedstock. So, because multiple feedstock will have different composition. So you can play
around and mix the composition in such a way that we will have an average composition that
is good enough for producing the energy or let us say, other value added products.
Availability is mainly reduced to forest areas. Now, residues have much lower costs and
dispersed and available almost everywhere. So, if you talk about the municipal solid waste,
food processing waste, industrial waste, then the dependence on only forest waste will come
down. Now; low energy density and bulk volume of fresh biomass affect storage cost and
transportation. This is what we just discussed in the previous slide.
So the activities, what we need to do is that, you go for chipping, enhance biomass storage
density, dry them, but again energy is coming into picture. So it is always advisable to reduce
the transportation cost. So how do you do that? Locate the biomass industries in such areas
where there is a huge biomass reserve. Then biomass degradability affect large distance
transport activities, long term storage.
Agro pellets production; you produce pellets from the Biomass and then it is easy to
transport, the density will come down (with low moisture and high energy density), avoiding
degradation and transportation issues. These are some of the major problems which are
associated with the Biomass and what we can and how we can address them suitably.
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So let us now understand what is a biorefinery? So I will show you 2, 3 slides to understand
what is biorefinery, then we will discuss about the Biomass based biorefinery things
(concept). So facility that integrates Biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce
fuels, power and Chemicals from Biomass is called a biorefinery. So it can be classified by
several categories: by feedstock materials, by resulting products, by technologies utilised or a
combination of all these three.
So, biomass feedstock; categorised by: chemical composition; maybe carbohydrates, lipids,
proteins, lignocellulosic materials.
So the resulting product categories may be biofuels, chemicals, biogas, electricity and heat
and technologies and unit operations employed include fermentation, gasification, pyrolysis,
hydrothermal liquefaction (It is very upcoming technology actually), hydrogenation,
hydrothermolysis and oxidation and hydrodeoxygenation.
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So some of the feedstock that has been tested (and I have just listed few there are many and
list is endless basically) are cultivated crops, agricultural waste, forest resources, urban and
industrial waste and micro algae. Algae is something interesting. We will discuss about algae
letter on; so microalgae have a great potential as a feedstock for the production of a wide
range of end products under the broad concept of biorefinery.
Algae can be used for the production of biofuels and a variety of value-added chemicals,
since they possess high amount of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, pigments and
enzymes.
So the importance of bio refinery for bio based industries: The International Energy Agency
Bioenergy Task 42 defined biorefining as the sustainable processing of biomass into a
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spectrum of bio based products. So it can be food, feed, chemicals and materials, as well as
bio energy that means bio fuels, power and/or heat. As refineries, biorefineries also can
provide multiple chemicals by fractioning an initial raw material (which is biomass in this
case) into multiple intermediates (so it can be Carbohydrate, protein, triglycerides) that can
be further converted into value added products. Each refining phase is also referred to as a
cascading phase. Now, biorefinery involves the enabling Technologies to make this possible,
as it allows for optimal utilisation as well as value creation of biomass. Development of
integrated closed-loop biorefineries that ensure their sustainability and economical viability
through a complete use of biomass, minimise waste, and generate the greatest possible added
value from the available sources.
What is this integrated close bio refinery? Let us say, it is a bio mass based refinery, I am
going to use one or two feedstock. I process them. Then I produce electricity or maybe liquid
bio fuels or maybe steam (if I am going for some steam based power generation) or some
other commodity products or value added products. Now thereby, I also produce a huge
amount wastewater because water is required in every stage of processing.
So having said that, you know, the fresh water availability is reducing day by day across the
globe in various places. We know that in India also, it is a huge problem in a few areas. So,
what is the need of the hour? It is that you have to treat and recycle this waste water in a
closed loop system. That means if you do that, we will be depending less on our freshwater
resources (that is what is the need of the hour).
Because a time will come when there will be very scarce water available. So how will we run
a refining process? Refining process, whether it is a bio refining or Petroleum crude based
refining, it consumes huge amount of freshwater. So we should look for an integrated closed
loop biorefinery. That means whatever waste we are generating it can be solid waste also. I
am not just talking about liquid waste (basically the wastewater), let us not talk about only
the liquid. Let us do something about the solid waste also. Whatever solid waste we generate
can we further process them to get fuels out of that, or, can we further process them to get
some value added products from that? If you do that in a closed to biorefinery circle, then the
biorefinery will become economically sustainable and will be a viable option.
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So the new you biorefinery concept overcomes the problems arising from the generation of
residues by giving them new value. This is how a significant increasee in profitability and
competitiveness over petrochemical equivalents will be achieved. Otherwise petrochemical
based fuels and products will always be low cost than whatever we produce from the
biomass. So Profitability and Competitiveness has to be taken care of also.
So we go for multiple products. What is the answer for that? We go for multiple products. Do
not aim only for the fuels or energy, but you please look for other products also. So,
biorefining is the main element in the framework of the emerging bio economy as a broad
spectrum of biomass resources offers great opportunities for a wide-ranging product portfolio
to satisfy the different needs of society.
So, as I told you, unless and until we go for multiple products, unless until we work for a
waste to energy or water energy nexus and how do we convert in-house generated waste from
the refining process, whether it is solid or liquid and get some value added products out of
that, we are not going to have a sustainable and economically viable biorefinery.
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So currently some biorefineries are operating on a commercial scale. Pulp and Paper
Industry, biofuel industry and food industry. Furthermore, many different newly advanced
biorefineries are under development. So the main characteristics of a biorefinery are: there
should be coupled generation of energy (gaseous and liquid bio fuels) as well as materials (it
can be Chemicals, food and feed). A combination of several process steps; it can be
mechanical processes, it can be thermochemical processes, it can be biochemical processes
also.
Use different raw materials; from both virgin and residual sources (that is also very
important). A common hurdle in the commercialization of biorefineries it is economic
viability. The economic hurdle starts from procuring Biomass and its logistics, technology
maturity and policy support. This is what we have already discussed.
So, the rate of commercialization of biorefineries is slow primarily due to the lack of policy
support. This I have already mentioned that the government has or should come up with
policies which will support the establishment of biorefineries. So biorefineries have to
compete with well-established petrochemical products. Policy support can drive innovation,
help technology to mature, create competitiveness to a market which in turn could reduce the
cost thus making the economic viability of biorefineries a reality. Government as a big role to
play.
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This is how it looks like basically. You have a biomass here, you process in the biorefinery,
you have downstream processing, you have separation technology. It can be catalytic
conversion or it may not be. Then we get this type of products: fuels, solvents, bulk
Chemicals, plastics, fibres, fine Chemicals and oils and what not? You can just see what not
we are getting from the biorefinery.
But again, one particular feedstock will not give me like this. So I should go for multiple
feedstock. And as well as not only virgin feedstock, but also processing feedstock, processing
with.
So before I wind up, I just quickly show you. We will glance through the different bio based
industries that are actually established and running successfully. Blue Marble Energy, so that
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is in Odessa and the Missoula. Canada's first integrated biorefinery, developed on anaerobic
digestion technology by Himark BioGas that is in Alberta, then Chemrec’s technology for
Black Liquor gasification and production of second generation of biofuels such as
biomethanol and bioDME. That is integrated with the host pulp mill and utilizes a major
sulphate or sulphite process waste product as the feedstock (completely waste product based
biorefinery).
Then Novamont has converted old petrol chemical factories into biorefinery. This is a very
interesting thing. So by just changing some of the processing things, some equipment, they
are running this refinery in a sustainable way.
C16 Biosciences they produce synthetic palm oil from carbon containing waste. Then there is
MacroCascade that aims to refine seaweed into food and fodder, and product for health care,
cosmetics, fine chemical industries and they have processed other things also. FUMI
Ingredients that produces foaming agents, heat set gels and emulsifiers from microalgae with
the help of microorganisms such as yeast and brewer’s yeast.
BIOCON, it is an Indian company. So they a processing the wood into various products.
More precisely, their researchers are looking at transforming Lignin and cellulose into
various products. Lignin based biorefineries are also there. Lignin for example can be
transformed into phenolic components which can be used to make glue, plastics and
agricultural products (crop protection). Cellulose can be transformed into clothes and
packaging.
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Now, in South Africa there is a company called Numbitrax LLC. They have bought a Bloom
biorefinery system for producing bioethanol as well as additional high return offtake products
from local and readily available resources such as prickly pear cactus plant basically. Then;
BiteBack Insect that makes insect cooking oil, insect butter and all these things.
Then there is a company called Circular Organics (it is a part of Kempen insect Valley) that
grows black soldier fly larvae on waste from the agricultural and Food Industry. So Fruit and
Vegetables surplus, remaining waste fruit juice and jam production (basically the solid
waste). These larvae are used to produce protein, grease and chitin. So, the grease is usable in
the pharmaceutical industries for cosmetics, surfactant for shower gel thereby replacing other
vegetable oil such as palm oil or it can be used as fodder also.
So with this I complete my lecture today. So thank you very much. And in the next lecture we
will start module 2. The module 2 is focused on biomass. So, we will be discussing the
availability and abundance of biomass, photosynthesis, composition and energy potential,
virgin Biomass production, agricultural, forestry waste and all these things. Their availability
and potential.
So thank you very much once again, and if you have any query, please write to me at
kmohanty@iitg.ac.in or you can also write to me in the Swayam portal. Thank you.
71

Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati
Module-02
Lecture-03
Biomass Basics
Good morning students. This is module 2 and lecture 1.
So, in this entire module, basically we will be discussing about biomass and biomass
structure, its availability, then composition, their energy potential, what type of biomass are
available, what type of land requirements are there; all these things slowly we will be
discussing.
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So, let us start our lecture today. So, as you know, biomass has always been an important
energy source, considering the benefits it offers. It is renewable, widely available and carbon
neutral and has the potential to provide significant employment in the rural areas. This is
what I discussed (in the) last class also; that how biomass based industry is going to effect the
economics of the rural people.
About 32% of the total primary energy use in India is still derived from biomass. More than
70% of the country's population depends upon it for their energy needs. The current
availability of biomass in India is estimated at about 500 million metric tons per year.
So, biomass is defined as the bio residue available by water based vegetation, forest or
organic waste, by product of crop production, agro or food industries waste. Various biomass
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resources are available in India in different form. They can be classified simply in the way
they are available in nature as: grasses, woody plants, fruits, vegetables, manures and aquatic
plants.
Algae and Jatropha are also now used for manufacturing biodiesel (we will be discussing
about them in detail later on). Core distinct sources of biomass energy can be classified as
residue of agricultural crop, energy plantation and municipal and industrial waste.
So, let us have a look at this particular slide. So, (first) you can see energy crops; plants
exclusively grown to derive energy. Basically it can be fuel, liquid fuel, solid fuel as well as
gaseous fuel. So, here there are some examples, bamboo, prosopis, leuceana, then we have
miscanthus, elephant grass, switch grass etc.
Then we have agro industrial wastes. So wastes from paper mills, molasses from sugar
refineries, pulp wastes from wood processing industries, textile fibre waste etc. Then we have
agricultural waste. So, waste that is coming from farming; such as straws of cereals and
pulses, stalks of fiber crops, seed coats of oil seed (basically de-oiled cake), then crop waste
like sugar cane trash, rice husk, coconut shell etc.
Then we have MSW, which we call municipal solid waste. So, mostly they are
biodegradable, such as food and kitchen waste, green waste, paper, inert waste, like fabrics,
clothes come under that (needs to be separated basically). Forest waste; so, basically logs,
chips, barks, leaves, forest industry waste products like sawdust.
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Now, bioenergy is the largest renewable energy source globally. In 2016, total primary
energy supply of biomass resources was 56.5 Exajoules, constituting almost 70% of the share
among all renewable energy sources. So, this table will give you an idea about, what is the
total energy that is available and the biomass based energy. So, you can see that in 2016
(latest figures), if you see 80.5 is the available energy of the renewables and out of that 56.5
comes from the biomass.
In continents, the role of biomass is very prominent. In Africa more than 90% of the total
primary energy supply of renewable energy sources comes from biomass. In every other
continent, biomass is the largest renewable energy source in terms of supply and accounting
from between 40% (Oceania) to almost 96% in Africa. So, this particular table shows you
75

what is the biomass fraction, basically from various continents, Africa, Americas and Asia.
The biomass is huge almost everywhere. It is more in Asia, okay followed by Africa.
So, understanding photosynthesis is the most important thing related to biomass. So,
understanding the photosynthesis of biomass began long back, in 1772 by the English
scientist, Joseph Priestley. So, he discovered that, green plants expire a life-sustaining
substance (that is basically oxygen) to the atmosphere, while a live mouse or a burning candle
removes the same substance from the atmosphere (removed meaning it is consumed
basically).
So, in 1804, the Swiss scientist Nicolas Theodore de Sausseure showed that the amount of
carbon dioxide absorbed by green plants is the molecular equivalent of the oxygen expired.
That means, he found out that, how much carbon dioxide is being consumed, is almost
equivalent (on a molecular level) to the oxygen that the plants expire. So, in this way, the
stoichiometry of the process was developed and major advancements were made to detail the
chemistry of photosynthesis, and how the assimilation of carbon dioxide takes place. About
75% of the energy in solar radiation is contained in light of wavelengths between the visible
and near infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. So, that is almost in the range of
400 to 1100 nanometers.
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The light absorbing pigments effective in photosynthesis have absorption bands in this range,
particularly in that 400 to 1100 range. So, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, which strongly
absorb wavelengths in the red and blue regions of the spectrum, and accessory carotenoid and
phycobilin pigments participate in the process. So, photosynthesis is a biological conversion
of solar energy into sugars and starches, which are energy rich compounds.
So, in photosynthesis reaction, water and carbon dioxide molecules break down and a
carbohydrate is formed with the release of pure oxygen.
CO2 + H2O + light + Chlorophyll → C6H12O6 (Glucose) + O2
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Now, there are two reactions, light reaction and dark reaction in photosynthesis. So, in the
light reaction, the splitting of water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen is happening under
the influence of chlorophyll and sunlight. So it is a photochemical phase reaction. Under the
dark reaction hydrogen is transferred to carbon dioxide to form starch or sugar, and it is a
biochemical phase reaction.
So, let us now understand the biomass composition. I can tell you that biomass composition
is a significant property that has so much to do with biomass processing and further their
value added product generation. So, what type of composition it has? If we talk about the
lignocellulosic biomass, these basically consists of 3 primary components, first one is
cellulose, then hemicellulose, and then lignin.
Apart from that there are other components also. So, how much cellulose and how much
lignin and how much the hemicellulose is present. So, this has to be calculated a priori. So,
this comes under the physicochemical characterization of the biomass. So, you need to
characterize it and you need to find out what is the crystallinity of the cellulose.
So, there is a process called delignification in which you basically remove the lignin from the
lignocellulosic biomass, to make them more amorphous and you will get the cellulose in a
pure form. So, that can be further processed and made into sugars. So, the chemical
composition of biomass, whether it is lignocellulosic or herbaceous, can be characterized by
5 primary components: cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, extractives/volatiles and ash. So,
these are the components which are present in almost all biomass. But, what varies, is their
78

amount from biomass to biomass. In some biomass, like hard woody biomass lignin presence
will be more, the amount of lignin will be very high. And in some soft biomass like creeps
and leaves the lignin presence will be very less okay.
So, the most abundant biopolymer on the earth is cellulose. It is a polysaccharide of glucose
monomers held together by β (1 → 4) linkages (it is a bond, a glycosidic bond basically). So,
these β (1 → 4) linkages are what makes cellulose resistant to hydrolysis. That means it’s all
about the crystallinity of the cellulose. So, if it is more crystalline, then you need to process it
further, you need more energy to break it. So, if we remove lignin, then the crystallinity will
also come down (reduce).
The second major component of the biomass is hemicellulose. It is an amorphous
heteropolymer comprised of several different carbohydrates including xylose, mannose and
glucose, among others. Due to its amorphous structure hemicellulose is significantly more
susceptible to hydrolysis than crystalline cellulose. So, cellulose and hemicellulose combined
with the third major component of the biomass, that is lignin, make up about 90% of
lignocellulosic biomass and 80% of herbaceous biomass.
So, lignin is an intricate array of aromatic alcohols and it is intertwined with the cellulose and
hemicellulose fraction of the biomass structure. So, this interwoven nature of the lignin helps
provide rigidity to lignocellulosic materials such as trees. So, lignin is bound along with
cellulose and hemicellulose in a very intertwined manner. So, that is why there is a need to
de-lignify (basically remove lignin) so, that cellulose and hemicellulose may be released from
79

the interlinking bond that was present previously. So, that cellulose will be more accessible
for hydrolysis purposes. The other minor components of the biomass are extractives/volatiles
and ash. While these components make up a smaller portion of the biomass composition, they
can still have a major influence on what ends up being the optimal conversion process.
So, please again note that the amount of volatiles/extractives present and the amount of ash
present plays a significant role. If there is huge ash present in the biomass, then they are not
good for certain particular processing, whether it is the thermochemical or biochemical. So,
every component has a role to play and will somehow effect the conversion technology or
conversion process.
The components comprising the extractives/volatiles include both water and ethanol solubles.
So, water soluble compounds include non-structural, sugars and proteins and ethanol soluble
compounds are typically represented by chlorophyll and waxes. Ash, which comprises the
inorganic content in biomass can be intrinsic to the biomass or added anthropogenically.
Anthropogenically means man-made (basically during the processing), so it is getting added
from the outside, it is not present inside the biomass. So, intrinsic ash includes material like
calcium and potassium ions, while anthropogenic ash is mostly silica. Silica is basically
coming from the dirt. When you are processing it in the field, it is getting dumped on the
field. So, you are taking it out. So, silica is coming into picture, that is how it is getting added
anthropogenically during harvesting.
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So, let us talk about biomass energy potential. So, biomass for energy originates from a
variety of sources classified into forestry, agricultural and waste streams. Some of the
potential sources include: crops for biofuels (dedicated crops), energy grass, short rotation
forests, woody biomass and residues, herbaceous by-products and municipal solid waste.
Globally, in 2012, the biggest share of biomass for energy came from the forests- almost 49
Exajoule out of a total supply of 56.2 Exajoule. So, the current global energy supply is about
560 Exajoule.
So, a conservative estimate of the energy potential of biomass from agriculture, forestry and
waste sectors is totalling to almost 150 Exajoule in the next 20 years. It is a huge energy
potential. About 43% coming from agricultural (so, that is residues by-products and energy
81

crops), 52% from the forest (which is wood fuel, forest residues and by-products of the forest
industry like sawdust) and 5% from waste streams. Now, biomass can play an important role
in the transformation to a new energy system based on renewable energies.
Let us now understand virgin biomass production and selection, how the biomass is getting
produced, the land requirements, etc, and how do we select them. So, virgin biomass includes
all naturally occurring terrestrial plants, such as trees, bushes and grass. The manufacture of
synfuels or synthetic fuels or energy products from virgin biomass requires that suitable
quantities of biomass chosen for use as energy crops be grown, harvested and transported to
the end user or to the conversion plant.
Since at least 2,50,000 botanical species of which only about 300 are cash crops are known in
the world, which indicates that biomass selection for energy could be achieved rather easily.
Because it is a narrowed loop, it is not a very big loop. And compared to the total known
botanical species, a relatively small number are suitable for the manufacture of synfuels and
other energy products.
The selection is not easily accomplished in some cases, because of the discontinuous nature
of the growing season and the compositional changes that sometimes occur on biomass
storage.
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Many parameters must be studied in great detail to choose the proper biomass species or
combination of species for operation of the system. Some of them are growth area
availability, soil type, quality and topography, propagation and planting procedures, growth
cycles, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide and other chemical needs, disease resistance of the
monocultures, insolation, temperature, precipitation and irrigation needs.
And there is pre harvest management, crop management and harvesting methods, storage
stability of the harvest, solar drying in the field versus in-plant drying in connection with
conversion requirements, growth area competition for food, feed, fiber and other end uses,
the possibilities and potential benefits of simultaneous or sequential growth of two or more
biomass species for synthetic fuels and foodstuffs, multiple end uses and transport to the
conversion plant gate or end-use site.
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