Biomass

What is biomass

The plants fix solar energy through the process of photosynthesis to produce biomass. This biomass passes through various cycles producing different forms of energy sources. For example, fodder for animals that in turn produce dung, agricultural waste for cooking. The current availability of biomass in India is estimated at about 120-150 million MT per annum covering agricultural and forestry residues corresponding to a potential of 16,000 MW.

Usage

Biomass is an important source of energy accounting for about one third of the total fuel used in our country and in about 90% of the rural households. The widespread use of biomass is for household cooking and heating. The types of biomass used are agricultural waste, wood, charcoal or dried dung.

Advantages

• Available locally and to some extent abundantly

• It is a relatively clean fuel when compared to fossil fuels. In a way biomass also cleans our environment by trapping Carbon di-oxide

Disadvantages

• Drudgery involved in collection of fuel

• During indoor cooking and in the absence of sufficient ventilation fuels such as dung cause air pollution which is a serious health hazard

• Unsustainable and inefficient use of biomass often leads to destruction of vegetation and hence environmental degradation.

Technologies for productive use of biomass

Technologies that enable efficient use of biomass are becoming prevalent in rural areas.

The efficiency of fuel usage is increased by

• use of improved designs of stoves which double the efficiency such as smokeless energy efficient chulhas

• compressing the biomass to form briquettes which not only occupy lesser space but also are more efficient

• conversion of organic matter into biogas through anaerobic digestion which apart from meeting fuel needs also gives digested manure for farms

• conversion of biomass into producer gas through partial combustion of biomass under controlled air supply

Biofuels

Biofuels are predominantly produced from biomass feed stocks or as a by-product from the industrial processing of agricultural or food products, or from the recovery and reprocessing of products such as cooking and vegetable oil. Biofuel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum fuel to create a biofuel blend. It can be used in conventional healing equipment or diesel engine with no major modification. Biofuel is simple to use, biodegradable, non-toxic and essentially free of Sulphur and aroma.