Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
DID YOU KNOW?
With regard to electricity, biomass energy cost per kilowatt hour (kWh) is about
5 to 10 cents, which amounts to approximately $1500 to $1800 per kilowatt
peak (kWp). However, the cost of electricity generated from biomass energy
differs as it is also dependent on certain factors as listed below:
•
Kind of the biofuel used
•
Method adopted to generate biomass energy form biofuel
•
Size of the plant for generating biomass energy
•
System design of the plant (Karthik, 2010)
BIOMASS
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Biomass (all Earth's living matter) consists of the energy from plants and plant-derived
organic-based materials; it is essentially stored energy from the sun. Biomass can be
biochemically processed to extract sugars, thermochemically processed to produce
biofuels or biomaterials, or combusted to produce heat or electricity. Biomass is also
an input into other end-use markets, such as forestry products (pulpwood) and other
industrial applications. This complicates the economics of biomass feedstock and
requires that we differentiate between what is technically possible from what is eco-
nomically feasible, taking into account relative prices and intermarket competition.
Biomass has been used since people began burning wood to cook food and keep
warm. Trees have been the principal fuel for almost every society for over 5000
years, from the Bronze Age until the middle of the 19th century (Perlin, 2005).
Wood is still the largest biomass energy resource today, but other sources of bio-
mass can also be used. These include food crops, grassy and woody plants, residues
from agriculture or forestry, and the organic component of municipal and industrial
wastes. Even the fumes from landfills (which are methane, a natural gas) can be used
as a biomass energy source. This category excludes organic material that has been
transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.
F
eedstock
t
ypes
A variety of biomass feedstocks can be used to produce transportation fuels, bio-
based products, and power. Feedstocks refer to the crops or products, such as waste
vegetable oil, that can be used as or converted into biofuels and bioenergy. With
regard to the advantages or disadvantages of one type of feedstock as compared
to another, this is gauged in terms of how much usable material they yield, where
they can grow, and how energy and water intensive they are. Feedstock types are
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Adapted from Spellman, F.R. and Bieber, R.,
The Science of Renewable Energy
, CRC Press, Boca
Raton, FL, 2011.
