Sensing biomass

Recently, the ocean-basin distribution of marine biomass and productivity has been estimated by satellite remote sensing. Ocean color at different wavelengths is determined and used to estimate near-surface phytoplankton chlorophyll concentration. Production is then estimated from chlorophyll using either in situ calibration relationships or from empirical functional algorithms (e.g., Platt and Sathyendranth, 1988 Field et al., 1998). Such studies reveal a tremendous amount of temporal and spatial variability in ocean biological production. 

Centralized electrification requires massive amounts of capital [10]. The dispersed nature of houses and low potential demand create little incentive for power companies to provide access to rural areas. In addition, extending the grid may be unrealistic due to transmission line costs or hard terrain [5]. Thus, in rural areas, off-grid and mini-grid solutions make the most sense. Such systems can consist of a single home or several small homes and businesses. The systems can be incremental and scalable and applied to many different conditions and environments [10]. Off-grid and mini-grid options for renewable electricity include solar, wind, clean biomass, and micro-hydro. These options for renewable power will be discussed in more detail below. 

In the broader sense, fuels on the basis of oil sands or oil shale can also be considered synfuels. From the latter, synthetic fuels can be produced more easily than from coal or biomass, as they have a higher H C ratio and thus less hydrogen needs to be added (see also Section 7.3.4). However, large mass flows of inorganic material need to be moved and heated, which significantly reduces the process efficiency. 

Pyrolysis and liquefaction processes take an intermediate position in the sense that they maintain some larger molecular characteristics. Pyrolysis is a process in which the biomass material is quickly heated. The thermal cracking process, de-polymerizes waste or dry biomass and produces a liquid of complex composition (Fig. 1.17). 

In what sense is biomass a form of solar energy ... 

Mielonen T, Portin H, Komppula M, Leskinen A, Tamminen J, Ialongo I, Hakkarainen J, Lehtinen KEJ, Arola A (2012) Biomass burning aerosols observed in Eastern Finland during the Russian wildfires in summer 2010 - Part 2 remote sensing. Atmos Environ 47 279-287... 

We examine some common principles of green chemistry in Section 16.2. Raw materials including recycling are discussed in Sections 16.3, and 16.4 reviews biomass conversion technologies. Sections 16.5 through 16.7 discuss the sense and nonsense of green chemistry and biofuels from various perspectives. 

In addition to biotechnology routes of exploitation, rapid thermochemical routes offer an alternative route to exploitation of biomass in its widest sense, being less... 

The analysis of spatio-temporal variations of phytoplankton biomass in the Black Sea was based on the remotely sensed data collected by the SeaWiFS (September 1997-May 2006) and MODIS-A (July 2002-May 2006) satellite sensors. The data were obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NASA GSFC DAAC) [6]. We used monthly averaged Level 3 standard mapped... 

Because the liquified solutions thus obtained are paste-like, it is necessary to dilute them with some suitable solvents in order to measure the liquefaction rate. In that sense, the soluble properties of the liquified wood and starch (liquified biomass) were investigated using a series of diluent solvents [17]. It was found that the liquefaction mixture consists of complicated aggregates of the degraded and modified wood components. In most cases, any single solvent could not dissolve all of the liquified components completely, as shown in Table 2. It was found that the binary systems composed of different-... 

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