Technology assessment, biomass

Production via Biomass Gasification. Advanced Energy Pathways (AEP) Project, Task 4.1 Technology Assessments of Vehicle Fuels and Technologies, Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program, California Energy Commission, UC Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). 

Figure 2. Biomass technology and resource assessment chart...

Benemann, J.R. Energy from Aquaculture Biomass Systems Fresh and Brackish Water Aquatic Plants Office of Technology Assessment, in press. 

A realistic assessment of biomass as an energy resource is made by calculating average surface areas needed to produce sufficient biomass at different aimual yields to meet certain percentages of fuel demand for a particular country (Table 2). These required areas are then compared with surface areas available. The conditions of biomass production and conversion used ia Table 2 are either within the range of 1993 technology and agricultural practice, or are beheved to be attainable ia the future. 

A. V. Bridgwater and G. D. Evans, An Assessment of Thermochemical Conversion Systems for Processing Biomass and Refuse, Energy Technology Support Unit, Harwell, Report ETSU/T1/00207/REP, Department of Trade and Industry, 1993. 

To date, aU of the methods discussed above rely on the amplification of DNA or RNA from an environmental sample, typically by PCR. PCR amplification can be biased (Becker et al., 2000 Lueders and Friedrich, 2003 Speksnijder et al., 2001 Suzuki et al., 1998 Webster et al, 2003). It is possible to eliminate an amplification step with array technology (PepUes et al., 2003 Taroncher-Oldenburg et al., 2003 Tiquia et al., 2004), but sensitivity can be an issue when assessing functional gene sequences in the environment because they are often less abundant than rRNA sequences and specific taxonomic groups are only a fraction of the total biomass present. 

Assessments of commercial biomass power technologies indicate that opportunities exist, particularly for niche market applications, when the business conditions are right. Federal legislation can have a large impact on these... 

Bridgwater, A.V., et al., (1999) An assessment of the possibilities for transfer of European Biomass Gasification Technology to China. European Commission Report, Luxemburg. 

As part of the technical assessment of the biomass hydrogasification concept, an experimental programme was defined in 1999 and performed at Deutsche Montan Technologic (DMT), Germany. 

Competitiveness Assessment of Applications of Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Technologies... 

As the assessment of the competitiveness of applications of different biomass conversion technologies is investigated in this paper, it is in ortant to identify comparable possibilities for the investor. 

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