What is Biomass Definition, Types, Usage, Advantages and more

What is Biomass?

Biomass is organic as it is composed of materials derived from living things like plants and animals. Plants, wood, and garbage are the most typical biomass resources used as energy sources. We refer to these as biomass feedstocks. A non-renewable energy source is also possible for biomass energy. The energy in biomass is firstly obtained from the sun through the process called photosynthesis where plants transform carbon dioxide and water into nutrients like carbohydrates.

Both direct and indirect methods can be used to convert the energy from biomass into a renewable source of energy. Combustion of biomass can provide heat and conversion of biomass to electricity. These both are considered direct methods, whereas conversion of biomass to biofuel is considered indirect.

Types of Biomass

Below mentioned are the types of Biomass feedstocks:

Energy crops:

Non-food crops known as “dedicated energy crops” can be grown on marginal land (areas unsuitable for growing conventional crops like corn and soybeans) particularly to produce biomass. Herbaceous and woody are the two broad categories into which these fall.

Crop residues(agricultural):

Examples of agricultural crop residues include rice straw, wheat straw, oat straw, barley straw, sorghum stubble, and maize stover (stalks, leaves, husks, and cobs).

Wood processing residues:

By-products and waste streams from the processing of wood are referred to as “wood processing residues” and have a substantial energy potential. For instance, the production of sawdust, bark, branches, and leaves or needles during the processing of wood for goods or pulp. The leftovers can then be used to create biofuels or other bioproducts.

The largest biomass energy source available today is still wood. Food crops, grassy and woody plants, forestry or agricultural wastes, oil-rich algae, and the organic portion of municipal and industrial wastes are some more sources.

Residues obtained from Forests

Forest biomass feedstocks come under two major categories:

1. Forest residues left after logging timber (including limbs, tops, and culled trees and tree components that would be otherwise unmerchantable) or

2. Whole-tree biomass is harvested explicitly for biomass. After logging, dead, diseased, malformed, and other unsaleable trees are frequently left in the forest.

While leaving enough behind to maintain optimal nutritional and hydrologic properties and offer habitat, this woody debris can be gathered for use in bioenergy.

Municipal waste:

MSW (municipal solid waste) resources include mixed commercial and residential debris, such as yard trimmings, paper and paperboard, plastics, rubber, leather, textiles, and food waste.

Wet waste:

• Commercial, institutional, and residential food wastes (specifically those recently disposed of in landfills);

• Organic-rich biosolids (that is treated sewage sludge from municipal wastewater);

• Manure slurries from concentrated livestock operations;

• Organic wastes from industrial operations; and

• Biogas is the gaseous product released from the decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. It is taken from any of the above feedstock streams.

Uses of Biomass

Biomass can be transformed into solid as well as liquid biofuel. Liquid is in the form of ethanol and biodiesel, making it the only renewable energy source that can do so. In nations like Sweden, Austria, and the United States, gasification is utilized to make biofuel, which is used to power automobiles.

Biomass containing high amounts of carbohydrates, such as sugar cane, wheat, or corn, is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol with vegetable which is recycled, or animal fat are combined to create biodiesel.

Biomass releases significant volumes of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it rots or burns, whether naturally or as a result of human activity. Biomass, on the other hand, sequesters, or stores, its carbon content when it is burned. When biochar is reintroduced to the soil, it can keep absorbing carbon and create large underground carbon sinks, or stocks of sequestered carbon, which can result in lower carbon emissions and healthier soil.

The soil is also enriched by biochar. It is permeable because of its porous nature. And when it is mixed back into the soil, water and nutrients are retained by biochar.

Hydrogen may be chemically produced from biomass and utilized to produce power and fuel cars. Electricity is produced by stationary fuel cells in wilderness areas and other distant or remote locations.

Advantages of Biomass

Biomass is an important part of Earth’s carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is mainly the process by which carbon is exchanged between all layers of the Earth, that is the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere.

There are various stages in the carbon cycle. The amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s atmosphere is regulated by carbon. It is exchanged through processes like photosynthesis, decay, respiration, and human activity. For instance, carbon that is absorbed by soil during an organism’s decomposition may be recycled when a plant uses photosynthesis to release nutrients including carbon into the biosphere. Before being retrieved through natural or human activities, the decomposing organism could transform into peat, coal, or petroleum under the correct circumstances.

In contrast to fossil fuels, biomass comes from living organisms. The carbon present in biomass can continue to be exchanged in the carbon cycle.

Biomass is a clean, renewable source for energy production. Plant or algae biomass may regenerate quickly since it gets its initial energy through photosynthesis with the help of the sun. Municipal solid trash, trees, and crops are all readily available and may be managed responsibly.

When crops and trees are grown responsibly, they can reduce carbon emissions by absorbing carbon dioxide during respiration. The quantity of carbon reabsorbed during some bioenergy processes even exceeds the amount of carbon that is emitted during the production or use of fuel.

SNCE is mainly situated in Nashik, Maharashtra. We are service providers for machines like briquette system, pellet machines. We supply and export good quality machines as we are the manufacturers of biomass briquette systems, pellet machines and other biofuel generating systems. These machines use biomass to produce energy through biofuels.

Some of these biomass products are briquettes and pellets.

What are briquettes and pellets?

The process used to create ovoid pillow shaped charcoal briquettes from a range of biomass types is known as roller pressing. In a roller press, briquettes are made by feeding a mixture of charcoal and binder into the tangential pockets of two rollers.

Any one of the five main types of biomass such as industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural leftovers, energy crops, and untreated lumber can be converted into pellets.