Biomass energy generation

In the United States about 3 percent of all electricity produced comes from renewable sources of this a little more than half comes from biomass. Most biomass energy generation comes from the lumber and paper industries from their conversion of mill residues to in-house energy. Municipal solid waste also is an important fuel for electricity production approximately 16 percent ot all municipal solid waste is disposed of by combustion. Converting industrial and municipal waste into bioenergy also decreases the necessity for landfdl space. 

In the United States, where clean and convenient natural gas, propane, and electricity are widely available and affordable, biomass use has limited potential. Nevenheless, U.S. biomass energy production has been increasing because of technological advances for new and improved biomass applications for electricity generation, gasification, and liquid fuels. 

Economics for generating electricity from biogas can be favorable. Landfill gas from municipal solid waste can supply about 4 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. In 1997, a total of 90 trillion Btus were generated by landfill gas, about 3 percent of total biomass energy consumption. 

Hideaki, Y, Technological Trends in Energy Generation fiom Biomass (in Japanese), CMC Press, 2001... 

Facilities using renewable biomass to generate electricity currently produce enough power for about 7 million American households per year.30 Many more biomass generation plants are not on the public power grid, but produce electricity and heat energy for manufacturing operations, primarily in the forest products industry. 

Biomass gasifiers have the potential to be up to twice as efficient as using conventional boilers to generate electricity. For even greater efficiency, heat from the gas turbine exhaust can be used to generate additional electricity with a steam cycle. These improvements in efficiency can make environmentally clean biomass energy available at costs more competitive with fossil fuels. 

Biomass can generate energy in many different forms. Refuse derived fuels (MSW) can produce steam or electric power. They can also be converted to other fuels using chemical or biological processes producing ethanol or methanol. The wood and pulp industries use their wastes to provide a significant part of their heat, steam, and electricity needs. 

The pyrolysis-based technology, in particular, because of the co-products opportunity, has the most favorable economics. An added advantage of biomass as a renewable feedstock is that it is not intermittent, but can be used to produce hydrogen as and when required. With scientific and engineering advancements, biomass can be viewed as a key and economically viable component to a renewable-based hydrogen economy. Economic viability of different types of energy generation processes is summarized in Table 8.1 (Bockris, 1981 Tanisho, 1996 Benemann, 1997). 

Utilities-Electricity Wind Generation Contract Power Generation Competitive Supply Biomass Energy LNG Terminals... 

Biomass to Mineralized Carbon Energy Generation and/or Carbon Sequestration ... 

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