Agricultural residues, biomass

Matsumura, Y., Minowa, T, Yamamoto, H., 2005. Amount, availability, and potential use of rice straw (agricultural residue) biomass as an energy resource in Japan. Biomass and Bioenergy 29, 347-354. 

Utihty production of biomass-fueled electric power is much less than nonutiUty production. In early 1985, there were only 18 faciUties having a total capacity of 245 MW, ie, nine fueled with wood (180.7 MW), five fueled with MSW (33.8 MW), two fueled with agricultural residues (22.5 MW), and two fueled with digester gas (8 MW) (112,113). The largest was the 50-MW plant in Burlington, Vermont (114). 

Biomass. Biomass is simply defined for these purposes as any organic waste material, such as agricultural residues, animal manure, forestry residues, municipal waste, and sewage, which originated from a living organism (70—74). 

Wood is one of our most important renewable biomass resources. Unlike most biomass sources, wood is available year round and is more stable on storage than other agricultural residues. In the United States, wood residues from iadustrial by-products totaled 60.8 x 10 metric tons ia 1993 (73). Increasiagly, residues are iacorporated iato manufactured wood products and are used as a fuel, replacing petroleum, especially at wood-iadustry plants (73) some is converted to charcoal but most is used ia the pulp and paper iadustry. Residues are also available for manufacturiag chemicals, generally at a cost equivalent to their fuel value (see Fuels frombiomass Fuels fromwaste). 

One of the most promising substrates for future production of microbial biomass is the ceUulose contained in agricultural residues such as wood pulp, sawdust, feed-lot waste, com stover, rice huUs, nut sheUs, and bagasse, aU of which contain ceUulose as the principal carbon source. CeUulose contents range from 90% in cotton to 15—20% in dicotyledon leaves. Wood residues and grasses contain mixtures of ceUulose, hemiceUulose, and lignin. The major... 

Zanzi, R., Sjostrom, K. and Bjornbom, E., Rapid Pyrolysis of Agricultural Residues at High Temperatures, submitted to Biomass Bioenergy, 2001... 

Although most ethanol is now produced from corn, research has been done on producing this type of alcohol fuel from cellulosic biomass products including energy crops, forest and agricultural residues, and MSW, which would provide much cheaper feedstocks. The process of chemically converting these cellulosic biomass feedstocks is more involved and until this process can be simplified the price of ethanol will remain high. 

The direct combustion of wood and other plant matter has been a primary energy source in the past. Any type of biomass can be burned to produce heat or steam to turn a generator or perform mechanical work. Direct combustion is used in large power plants that produce up to 400 megawatts. Most direct combustion systems can use any type of biomass as long as the moisture content is less than 60%. Wood and wood residues are commonly used along with a number of other agricultural residues. 

The Renewables-Intensive Global Energy Scenario (RIGES) predicts a primary energy potential from biomass resources for Western Europe to be 14160 PJ/year by 2025 and 14 170 PJ/year by 2050 (Johansson et al., 1993). Thereby the biomass potential comprises resources from wood, energy crops, agricultural residues and industrial biomass residues. The estimates are based on the biomass production at that time in combination with assumptions of future growth rates. 

Hoogwijk et al. (2005) assume the biomass energy potential in Western Europe from energy crops, agricultural residues, forest residues and industrial biogenic residues to be of the order of 10000 PJ/year and 16000 PJ/year by 2050. The analysis is based on the IMAGE 2.2 model using the four scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), (Nakicenovic, 2000) as main assumptions for the included food demand and supply. 

In this context, Fig. 5.16 indicates the dynamic evolution of the identified biomass primary potentials at the EU25 level, whilst Table 5.5 shows a detailed breakdown of corresponding fuel costs for the considered biomass options, including agricultural products or energy crops (e.g., rapeseed and sunflower, miscanthus), agricultural residues (straw), forestry products (e.g., wood chips), forestry residues and biowaste. 

The gasification process can use a variety of biomass resources, such as agricultural residues and wastes, or specifically grown energy crops. The technologies for gasifying... 

Fig. 1.15 Key global biomass resources from agricultural residues, wood, and herbaceous energy crops. (A. J. Ragauskas et al., Science, 311,484 (2006). Reprinted with permission from AAAS [7]).

These systems offer the opportunity to produce hydrogen from renewable resources in the mid-term (five to ten years). Using agricultural residues and wastes, or biomass specifically grown for energy uses, hydrogen can be produced using a variety of processes. 

Fabrication. Processes for fabricating solid fuel pellets from a variety of feedstocks, particulady RDF, wood, and wood and agricultural residues, have been developed. The pellets are manufactured by extrusion and other techniques and, in some cases, a binding agent such as a thermoplastic resin is incorporated during fabrication. The fabricated products are reported to be more uniform in combustion characteristics than the raw biomass. Depending on the composition of the additives in the pelletized fuel, the heat of combustion can be higher or lower than that of the unpelletized material. 

Residues. Residues from the forest such as twigs, from the agricultural industry, from wood processing (wood dust), as well as from animal farming (manure) are good examples of residue biomass. 

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