System aspects of biomass use in complex applications: biorefineries for production of heat, electric power and chemicals - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 136

The major chemicals investigated are methane, DME and methanol (Chemrec, 2012). Sometimes
also ammonia production is investigated together with the gasification plants. Residual gas then
can also be combusted in a conventional boiler. This new trend is often called “polygeneration”
(Naqvi, 2012). From this type of plant we have come very close to the biorefineries at the pulp
mills and in the future we will most probably see many more integrated factories where production
of chemicals go hand in hand with production of heat, power, cooling and different type of paper
products. Integration of organic wastes from farmland, building materials and forestry will be
seen and new processes combining high temperature gasification, combustion, biogas production
through fermentation as well as torrefaction and pyrolysis. What has long been developed for
coal will most probably be focused more on use for biomass as well.
This new trend will create new business opportunities for many companies and make countries
independent of fossil fuels. We can foresee a fight between oil companies who want to keep
their powerful position and companies converting and growing forests and agricultural crops,
and what has been seen as an uninteresting waste will turn into a very profitable raw material
source (Jakobsson, 2012). This will change the political balances between different regions, but
also between companies and countries. Countries who do not support this transfer will most
probably be losers, while those going for it will be the winners. Of course, biomass will not
be the only renewable energy source. Wind power is already expanding dramatically and solar
power is coming on very strong as well. These three legs will most probably be the dominating
energy sources, while wood and cellulosic materials also will be the major source for production
of polymers, chemicals and building materials (Dahlquist, 2011).
The fight between renewables and fossil fuels will not go quickly but most probably will last
for the next 50-100 years. Still there is no doubt, which one will win. As the fossil fuels become
more difficult to extract, the production cost and also the price will increase, so in the long-term
the renewables will become more profitable. If we include also the global warming aspect, we
just can wish that the renewables break through quickly and thereby reduce the use of fossil fuels
and thereby reduce the risk for too intense global warming. In many countries, the politicians
do not see the global warming as a problem, although the researchers are very worried, and thus
we hope the market forces can act in a positive way. Still, the introduction of renewables needs
economic incentives to drive the implementation on a large scale, and thereby give a reduced
production cost.
For biomass and wind power we principally have already reached this point in many countries,
and solar power has been increasing in volume to some 60,000 million US$/y in 2009 as Germany
has provided very attractive feed-in tariffs - 0.4 €/kWh delivered to the grid (Kazmerski, 2011)!
Due to this, the price was falling to half during 2011, and is now around 2000 €/kW el installed. This
can be compared to the new nuclear power plant in Finland costing some 3000 €/kW el in 2012.
7.3 USE OF HERBS FOR MEDICAL AND OTHER APPLICATIONS
Since many thousands of years back, humans have utilized herbs for medical purposes. Some of
these herbs have been found to be very active in different ways. In the topic Green medicines -
the search for plants that heal (1965) Margaret Kreig goes through a number of interesting
stories about how pharmacologists have found many different active substances by travelling to
indigenous people and collecting herbs for testing in their laboratories. Examples of important
medical substances found in this way are kinin for malaria, digitalis for heart diseases, curare
to counteract allergic chock, acetyl salicylic acid, the most common substance for use against
inflammations and fever, penicillium against bacteria etc. In the topic American Medicinal Plants
(1974), Charles Millspaugh has made a review of plants indigenous to and naturalized in the
United States, which are used in medicine. Here we can see anything from wild strawberry
( Fragaria spp.) that could be good towards diarrhea and dysentery according to old traditions, to
helianthus (sunflower), which is now cultivated and used for food, but where the medical effects
are still not well understood or investigated.