ENR 146 : Renewable Energy Resource Characteristics (Introductory Lecture)
Dr. Aditi Agarwal
Email: aditiagarwal1214@[Link]
Course Content
What are and Why Renewable Resources?
Conventional Energy Source Alternative Energy Source
•Limited Availability •Ample Availability
•Uneven Distribution •Even Distribution in all Demographic
•Waste Generation Areas
•No Waste, Closed carbon cycle
•Toxic Chemicals
•No Toxic Chemicals
•Pollution •Minimum Pollutants
•Efficient Process
What is Biomass?
• Biomass is any organic matter: wood, crops, seaweed, • During Photosynthesis, sunlight converts water and carbon
animal wastes that can be used as an energy source. dioxide into oxygen and sugars (carbohydrates) that give energy
Biomass is probably our oldest source of energy after to the plants.
the sun. • Unlimited biomass supply, hence, it is a renewable energy
• Biomass gets its energy from the sun. resource.
Types of Biomass
All the materials derived from the plants and animals are termed as biomass and can be used to produce energy
and chemicals
Non-Edible and Aquatic Biomass Lignocellulosic Biomass
Major Constituents: Major Constituents:
• Lipids • Lignin
• Cellulose • Cellulose
• Hemicellulose
• Hemicellulose
• Difficult due to lignin content
• Biological Conversion • Energy intensive Process
• Less Energy intensive Process • Bulk Availability
• Limited Availability
Biomass Conversion
Lignocellulosic Biomass can produce both energy and chemicals whereas other
renewable resources can majorly provide energy
Different Generations of Fuels and Feed Biomass
Opportunities: Growing Market
Opportunities: High Demand
Opportunities: Economic Value
• Fluctuating Cost of Fossil Fuels: In past few years, we seen a sudden surge in Fuel prices
which varies between $50 per barrel to $150 per barrel that affects economy of any country by
huge margin, especially of developing countries.
• Increased Fuel Demand: It is expected that rapid industrial growth and technology development
will lead to 60% increase in energy demand by next 20 years.
• Potential Economic Market: The global biofuel market including manufacturing and sale was
more than $20 billion in 2006 which is expected to reach a level beyond $80 billion by 2016.
• Bio-lubricants Market: The global market for bio-lubricants alone is estimated to be more than
$40 billion which is expected to increase further.
Opportunities: Availability of Biomass
Country Land Area, (Million Forest Area,
Ha) (Million Ha)
Africa 2965 674
South America 1756 864
Central & North 2110 705
America
Asia 3094 593
Europe 2214 1005
Oceania 849 191
Caribbean 23 7
World Total 13010 4033
Biomass Availability
Ca
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32 % of total
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primary energy
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More than 70 % of the
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dependent on biomass
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500 million metric tonnes per year is
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available in India
In
dia
• 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.
• In India, 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 used for the manufacturing of bio-diesel. The classification of biomass is based on the residue of
agricultural crop, energy plantation and municipal and industrial waste.
Biomass Availability
• Bioenergy is the largest renewable energy source globally.
• In 2021, Total primary energy supply of biomass resources was 56.5 EJ, constituting 70 % of the share among all the
renewable energy sources.
Biomass Availability
• In continents, the role of biomass is important. In Africa, more than 90 % of the total primary
energy supply of renewable energy sources is 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.
Biomass Sources
Forestry
Energy crops: These
plantations, are exclusively
Wood from forest residues: grown for their
natural
logs, chips, wood from marginal
barks, leaves, lands for energy
forests and industry
woodlands generation. Eg.
products like
sawdust.
switchgrass,
miscanthus, willow,
hybrid poplar,
algae, etc.
Agricultural residues
such as straw, Animal Agro-industrial
stover, cane trash and wastes (cow wastes, like
green agricultural manure, pou sugarcane bagasse,
wastes, paper mills -ltry litter, rice husk, straws of
wastes, molasses from cereals and pulses,
fish oil, etc.)
sugar refineries, pulp stalks of fibre crops,
wastes from food seed coats of oil, crop
processing units, wastes like sugarcane
textile fibre waste. trash, coconut shell,
etc.
Biomass Sources
Industrial
wastes, such as
black liquor
from paper
manufacturing
• Municipal solid wastes
(MSW): Urban and
suburban wastes, lawn
waste, wastewater
treatment sludge, urban
wood wastes, disaster
debris, trap grease,
yellow grease, waste
cooking oil, etc.
Biomass Sources
The organic matter directly produced by photosynthetic organisms
Primary (algae, plants, and other autotrophic organisms), which comprises all
Sources plant biomass.
Secondary biomass produced by the heterotrophic organisms that
Secondary
consume primary biomass, such as meat and waste from
Sources herbivores.
It encompasses the biomass produced from organisms fed on
Tertiary
secondary biomass. Along this ecological chain, there is a transfer
Sources and a loss of energy.
Bioenergy chains are supplied with primary biomass and the waste streams coming from the production of secondary and
tertiary biomass.
Ecological Pyramids
•The dry weight of organisms in a particular trophic level of an ecosystem is called
biomass. The pyramid obtained by arranging these organisms at each level of the
food chain is called the pyramid of biomass
•There are three types of ecological pyramids. These are the pyramid of numbers, the
pyramid of biomass, and energy. The trophic structure of an ecosystem is called an
ecological pyramid. G. Elton first described this pyramid.
•When energy is transferred from one trophic level to another in an ecosystem, some of
the energy is returned to the environment as thermal energy, reducing the total energy in
the net trophic level. Because of this, less energy is transferred to the next food level.
•As a result, the number of organisms decreases. Because more organisms are not able to
provide the previous trophic level with energy.
•For this region, the food pyramid is formed by successively arranging the number,
biomass, and energy transfer of organisms from the lower trophic level to the higher
trophic level.
Ecological Pyramids
•When the trophic structure of an ecosystem is arranged in successive stages then it is called an ecological pyramid.
•At the bottom of the ecological pyramid are the producers, and at the top, there are the consumers.
•Forest ecosystems have the highest biomass at the producer level and the lowest biomass at the top level of tertiary consumers.
But the aquatic ecosystems may have an inverted pyramid of biomass.
•The shape of the producer located in the land of this pyramid is large and the amount of biomass is also very high. But this trend
is not equal everywhere.
•All of the world’s ecosystems and biomes are represented by an upright biomass pyramid.
Ecological Pyramids
The pyramid of energy: total energy that is created from the sun by primary producers which moves through the
different trophic levels.
The pyramid of biomass: the total amount of biomass shows the relative amount of organic matter available for
consumption by the next higher trophic level.
The pyramid of numbers: the population, or the relative number of organisms available for consumption by the
next higher trophic level.
Biomass Composition and Energy Potential
The chemical composition of biomass, whether it is lignocellulosic or herbaceous, it can be characterized by five
primary components:
(a) Cellulose
(b) Hemicellulose
(c) Lignin
(d) Extractives/volatiles
(e) Ash
(f) The most abundant biopolymer on Earth, cellulose, is a polysaccharide of glucose monomers held together by
β(1→4) linkages. These linkages are what make cellulosic resistant to hydrolysis.
(g) The second major component of biomass, hemicellulose, is an amorphous heteropolymer comprised of several
different carbohydrates including xylose, mannose and glucose, among others. Due to its amorphous structure,
hemicellulose can get hydrolyze more than cellulose.
(h) Cellulose and hemicellulose, combined with the third major component of biomass, lignin, makes 90 % of
lignocellulosic biomass and 80 % of herbaceous biomass.
Biomass Composition and Energy Potential
(d) Lignin is an array of aromatic alcohols intertwined with the cellulose and hemicellulose fraction of the biomass
structure. The interwoven nature of the lignin helps provide rigidity to lignocellulosic materials, such a trees.
(e) Extractives/volatiles and ash: Smaller portion of the biomass but have a major influence of the processing.
Greater ash content is not good for thermochemical or biochemical processing.
Waste Biomass
Biomass Availability Abundance Potential
Waste Biomass (municipal, Upto 1990s, a few energy Huge Lower in cost; have negative
industrial, agricultural, systems; Under costs, can be disposed in a
forestry) development and growing manner to suit the economic
costs
Municipal (MSW, urban Available to the limit that 2.01 billion tonnes of MSW Distinctive as an energy
refuse, garbage); Bio-solids it must be converted to a generation worldwide, 33 % is resource; Landfill MSW can
(sewage, sludge) resource and feedstock for unmanaged. Average waste provide fuel gas for heat,
additional energy recovery generated is 0.74 kg per person. steam, electric power
processing. By 2050, 3.40 billion tonnes production
global waste.
Industrial Waste (residues, by large number of residues In Asia, 0.61 EJ of industrial Anerobic digestion produces
products), discarded food, and by-products, peelings waste energy value is present. biogas or fermented to
wastewater, pulp and paper and scraps from fruit and produce ethanol; Black liquor
industry waste vegetables, food that do can be used for producing
not meet quality control anaerobic UASB technology.
standards
Waste Biomass
Biomass Availability Abundance Potential
Agricultural waste (crops, 10 % of global biomass Yield and demand of crops is At present, contribution is
residue) supply; Harvesting of always high; Residues amount to less than 3 % of the total
crops is > 580 million 4.3 to 9.4 billion tonnes globally bioenergy production; Can
hectares of land per year. Major contributors are meet 3-14 %.
wheat, maize, rice.
Forest waste (charcoal, fuel 3.99 billion land is forest Naturally regenerated forest is 85 % of the biomass
wood, pellets, wood chips) land. around 61 %.
Biomass Photosynthesis
• The reactions that occur when carbon dioxide is fixed in
live green biomass are photochemical and biochemical
conversions that involve the uptake of CO2, water, and
the solar energy absorbed by plant pigments.
• Carbon dioxide is reduced and water is oxidised.
• Light energy Chemical energy
• Initial products are sugars
• Secondary products are polysaccharides, lipids, proteins,
wide range of organic compounds.
• Pentose ribulose-1,5-diphosphate is a key intermediate
which reacts with CO2 and forms 3-phosphoglyceric acid.
Biomass Photosynthesis (Z-scheme light reaction)
Biomass Photosynthesis (Dark Reaction, Calvin Cycle)
Course Content
