Biomass Energy in India

Biomass is basically biological material derived from living organisms. In the context of biomass for energy particularly, this is often used to mean the material based on plants. If we talk about the chemical composition of biomass, it is carbon based and is composed of a combination of organic molecules containing hydrogen. The carbon require to make biomass is absorbed from the atmosphere as carbon dioxide by plant life, using energy from sun.

As a renewable source of energy, biomass can either be used directly or via combustion to generate heat or indirectly after converting it to variety of fuels. These fuels are then become a strong alternative for fossil fuels which are renewable in nature. This conversion of biomass into biofuel is done by three methods which are thermal, chemical, and biochemical.

Biomass is converted into biomass energy by the means of two methods that are direct and indirect. Direct method involves burning of wood. In this case, selected spices of trees are planted and harvested over regular interval of time in such a manner to maintain a regular availability of wood for cooking and other allied purposes. The list of such trees includes babool, casuarinas, and eucalyptus. On the other hand, indirect method is further classified into two categories. These are:

Biological conversion

• Anaerobic digestion

Thermo Chemical Conversion

• Pyrolysis

• Gasification

Anaerobic digestion has been widely used in India for high moisture organic materials, mainly dung. Its applications are in cooking. Pyrolysis is widely used for generating various gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels from biomass. The best example is making of charcoal. Gasification is done to convert biomass into biofuel which are further used at the place of fossil fuels. The main reason behind the wide usage of biofuel is limited supply of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas.

Going back to its history, people were using biomass derived energy since the time when people started burning wood to make fire. When it comes to present scenario of biomass energy, it is contributing about forty percent of the total energy supplied in India. In rural areas it contributes around 84% of the energy in domestic sector.

At present biomass is used in variety of industries. These applications are:

1. Direct thermal applications

• Institutional cooking, boilers and other thermal applications.

2. Biomass is used in generation of electricity

3. Used in production of producer gas

• It is used for production of producer gas which is further used as a fuel in vehicles, IC engines,

• Used in water supply in rural areas and irrigation water pumping

4. After converting biomass into biofuel

• It is used in the form of ethanol for transport application.

Advancements in biomass energy technology

Biomass briquette machine has played a vital role in bringing technological advancement to this field. This advancement is derived from mainly from energy conversion technologies and biomass energy production practices. Versatility of modern biomass technologies to use variety of biomass feedstock has enhanced the supply potential. Small economic size and co-firing with other fuels has also opened up additional application.