Comparative analysis of biomass energy potential in BRICS countries

Coconut shell charcoal has been widely produced as a raw material for biobriquette production. This cause effect on an increase of coconut shell price as a raw material for charcoal production. Wood waste is one of the easier and cheaper biomass to be obtained than coconut shell. However, the quality of charcoal produced from wood waste need to be compared to be used as a substitute of coconut shell. This study aims to discover the effect of pyrolysis as a carbonisation process on coconut shell, wood waste, and a mixture of both biomass on the quality of charcoal produced including yield, proximate analysis, lignocellulose analysis, and calorific value. A completely randomized design was used in this study by taking into account two influencing factors, including the type of sample (biomass sample and charcoal sample) and the type of biomass (coconut shell, wood waste, and a mixture of both). Pyrolysis was carried out at 550℃ for 120 minutes. Pyrolysis of biomass and different types of biomass have giving effects on the characteristics of the biomass and charcoal produced. The results of the analysis showed that the type of coconut shell biomass and a mixture of the two biomasses produced charcoal that qualified on standards. The results of the analysis concluded that charcoal made from a mixture of coconut shell and wood waste could be a solution to substitute charcoal made from coconut shell only.

Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a key negative emissions technology that has the potential to substantially reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration and limit global warming to below 2°C. Among the available negative emission technologies, BECCS is projected to produce 50 TWh/yr of power generation, thereby removing 47 MtCO2/yr in 2050 in the UK, as suggested by the Committee for Climate Change. Important indicators when considering the deployment of BECCS is to ensure BECCS has 1) a negative carbon balance, 2) a positive energy balance, and 3) and does not compete for food for agricultural land use. Recovering energy from waste wood and municipal solid waste (MSW) has the potential to generate electricity, deliver negative emissions, whilst minimising land use and biomass import. This study optimises the design of a UK BECCS value chain with a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. The fuels considered for this work include MSW derived fuel, waste wood (grade A and B), indigenous miscanthus, indigenous poplar, and imported pine pellets from the US. CO2 emissions and costs associated with the entire supply chain are explicitly accounted for. The BECCS supply chain optimisation results indicate that MSW and waste wood are consumed as the basic material supplies, which can provide low-cost alternative to imported biomass. By using MSW and waste wood, the total system cost would be reduced ~12%. Miscanthus is preferred over poplar as the virgin biomass supply and the farms are mostly located in the south of the UK, which has higher production yield and land availability. The selection of BECCS plant locations tends to be near cities where waste wood and MSW are more readily available and then expand to port area. Biomass feedstock derived from wastes are therefore likely to play an important role in BECCS deployment in the UK, in both biomass supply and locations of BECCS facilities.

Biomass is one of the oldest and most widely used renewable energy sources. The biomass is the whole organic matter of vegetable or animal origin which is biodegradable. Biomass includes leftovers from agricultural production, forestry residues, and industrial and municipal waste. The use of biomass in the power industry has become a standard and takes place in Poland and other European countries. This paper discusses the correlation of mercury content in different biomass types used in the power industry and in products of biomass combustion. Different biomass types, which are currently burned in a commercial power plant in Poland, were discussed. A photographic documentation of different biomass types, such as straw briquettes, wood briquettes, pellets from energy crops (sunflower husk and wood husk), wood pellets, wood chips, and agro-biomass (seeds) was carried out. The presented paper discusses the results obtained for 15 biomass samples. Five selected biomass samples were burned in controlled conditions in the laboratory at the University of Silesia. The ash resulting from the combustion of five biomass samples was tested for mercury content. A total of twenty biomass samples and its combustion products were tested. Based on the obtained results, it was found that any supply of biomass, regardless of its type, is characterized by variable mercury content in dry matter. In the case of e.g. wood chips, the spread of results reaches 235.1 μm/kg (in dry matter). Meanwhile, the highest mercury content, 472.4 μm/kg (in dry matter) was recorded in the biomass of straw, wood pellets, and pellets from energy crops (sunflower husk). In the case of combustion products of five selected biomass types, a three or four fold increase in the mercury content has been observed.

Mixed Solid Municipal Waste-Based Biochar for Soil Fertility and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

Rising energy prices and depleting reserves of fossil fuels continue to renew interest in the conversion of biomass to biofuels production. Biofuels derived from renewable feedstocks are environmentally friendly fuels and have the potential to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation fuels by 2050. Moreover, biofuels are expected to reduce reliance on imported petroleum, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stimulate regional economies by creating jobs and increasing demand and prices for bioproducts. Biofuels such as ethanol are derived from food crops, biomass, or lignocellulosic materials through biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes. First-generation biofuels (i.e. corn ethanol and biodiesel) are made largely from food crops such as cereals, sugar crops, and oil seeds. The technologies to produce the first-generation biofuels from edible sugars and starches are mature and well understood, and production is primarily limited by environmental and social concerns such as competition for land and water used for food and fiber production causing increase in world commodity prices for food and animal feeds (Sims et al. 2010). Owing to these important limitations the “next-generation”, or second- and third-generation biofuels are being developed from non-edible lignocellulosic materials using advanced technologies. These lignocellulosic feedstocks include woody biomass and wood wastes, crop residues, dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass, municipal wastes, and algae. These next-generation feedstocks do not compete directly with food production and can often be produced on marginal or unused croplands. Furthermore, lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable energy source, with the potential to displace a large portion of conventional energy resources such as fossil fuels and natural gas for the future production of liquid biofuels with improved environmental benefits. As a result, lignocellulosic biomass holds promise as a feedstock for a biorefinery where sugars can be transformed into building-block chemicals through fermentation, enzymatic, and chemical transformations (Ragauskas et al. 2006). Lignocellulosic biomass is a composite structure of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose polymers. The efficient utilization of biomass for biofuels production requires a fractionation of biomass constituents into separate streams at maximum yields. However, a major barrier to lignocellulosic biomass utilization in any sugar platform biorefinery is its intrinsic resistance to deconstruction. This recalcitrance results from multiple factors including the heterogeneous nature of the polymer matrix, the complexity of lignin and hemicellulose spatial and chemical interactions, and the extensive hydrogen bonding of crystalline cellulose. Therefore, investigating plant cell wall biosynthesis to unravel the recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic biomass, exploring the types of pretreatment processes used to deconstruct biomass, and developing efficient enzymatic hydrolysis are main focus areas in converting the polymeric carbohydrates present in plant biomass to fermentable sugars for cost-effective ethanol production.

Hydrogen farm concept: A Perspective for Turkey

Torrefaction of biomass: Production of enhanced solid biofuel from municipal solid waste and other types of biomass

An experimental study has been conducted into the ignition and combustion processes of composite fuel droplets fed into a heated muffle furnace on a holder. Consistent patterns and characteristics of physical and chemical processes have been established for a group of fuel compositions: wet coal processing waste (a mixture of fine coals and water) 85% + municipal solid waste (wood, or plastic, or rubber) 10% + used oil 5%. Burning a coal-water slurry instead of dry coal dust is characterized by a positive environmental effect. Adding used oil to a coal-water slurry results in better energy performance characteristics of the composite fuel during combustion. Adding fine municipal solid waste (MSW) to the fuel composition makes it possible to effectively recover it by burning in boiler furnaces with energy performance characteristics of combustion and environmental characteristics of flue gases that are as good as those of composite fuel compositions without MSW. Sustainability of the composite fuel ignition process and complete burnout of liquid and solid combustible components have been determined. The values of the guaranteed ignition delay times for droplets with a size (diameter) of about 2 mm have been established for the composite fuel compositions under study in the ambient temperature range 600–1000 °C. The minimum values of ignition delay times are about 3 s, the maximum values are about 15 s under the near-threshold ignition conditions. The obtained findings enabled to elaborate the main elements of the strategy for combined recovery of industrial and municipal waste by burning it as part of composite fuels.

Biomass, in addition to being used for heating purposes in households, is increasingly used for the production of electricity, as well as liquid fuels for motor vehicles. Similar to other renewable resources, the analysis of the possibility of using biomass (theoretical, technical and economic potential) should include a systematic analysis of available potentials and technologies, as well as economic parameters related to its price (biomass as raw material), the price of energy obtained from biomass (effectiveness of applied technology of transformation of primary into useful form of energy) and competitiveness in relation to other energy sources (static and dynamic economic-financial parameters). As there are different techniques and methodologies for estimating the potential of biomass, it is possible to significantly deviate from the obtained results in the estimated quantities, so it is necessary to further analyze the acceptability of the error in the assessment. The biggest obstacle in the use of biomass as an energy source for industrial purposes for energy production is the lack of a fuel cycle of a chaos system of processes, technologies and equipment that allow fuel from its natural state (primary form of fuel) to be prepared and brought into a usable state (usable forms of energy). The process of formation and development of the fuel cycle for biomass is further complicated by the diversity of forms and properties of biomass, its wide distribution and low energy concentration, as well as its seasonal character. The potential of biomass in the territory of Republic of Srpska comes from various production activities (residues from field, fruit, vineyard, livestock and forestry production, as well as municipal waste). Farming and animal husbandry have a long tradition among farmers in the Republic of Srpska, as well as fruit, vineyard and forestry production. The structure and quantities of communal waste depend on housing density, economic and communal activities, cultural habits and social environment. Biomass as an energy source is available in the form of waste from forestry and wood processing (waste wood from forestry, sawdust, bark, construction waste, wood packaging, plant residues from fruit production, plant residues from agricultural production - straw, corn, etc.), plantation of energy crops (energy cereals, fast-growing energy tree plantations, sugar-rich plants, oilseeds, etc.), as well as organic waste. The process of conversion of biomass into energy is most often observed from the thermal, i.e., thermo-chemical, biological or physic-chemical process. Within this chapter, an overview of the state and directions of development of technologies for the conversion of biomass as an energy source into a useful form of energy (primarily into electricity and heat) is given. Each method of energy production used, including methods that use biomass as fuel, has its advantages and disadvantages. Special emphasis was given to overcoming significant shortcomings in the use of biomass as an energy resource, as well as its impact on covering the total consumption of electricity and heat and technological steam in industrial plants, as well as consumption as biofuels in transport technology. A special segment is given to the impact of biomass as an energy source on environmental protection, as well as on the conditions that need to be provided in order to achieve CO2 neutrality. Also, the sustainability of each of the methods for the transformation of biomass into a useful form of energy was analyzed.

The substitution of municipal solid waste (MSW) for pulverized coal reduces the dependence on fossil fuels, lowers production costs in energy-intensive industries, and helps decrease carbon emissions. The primary method of utilizing MSW as fuel is mixed combustion with pulverized coal. This paper employs a thermogravimetric analysis to study the combustion characteristics and perform a kinetic analysis of a mixture of MSW and pulverized anthracite coal. The simulated MSW is composed of three representative components: polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), and straw (a typical biomass). The experimental results indicate that the combustion process of MSW is more complex than that of anthracite. The initial ignition temperature of MSW is 334 °C, whereas that of anthracite is 551 °C. As the proportion of MSW increases, the weight loss stages in the combustion curve of the mixture become more numerous, and the ignition temperature gradually decreases. Moreover, the combustion performance of the MSW–anthracite mixture improves, with the combustibility index Rm rising from 0.131 to 0.235. The combustion process of MSW–anthracite mixtures was analyzed using the random pore model (RPM), the unreacted core model (URCM), and the volumetric model (VM). Among these, the VM was found to be the most suitable kinetic model for the combustion process. The activation energies for the combustion processes of anthracite, 20% MSW-80% anthracite, 40% MSW-60% anthracite, 60% MSW-40% anthracite, 80% MSW-20% anthracite, and MSW were calculated to be 152.05 kJ/mol, 80.51 kJ/mol, 51.05 kJ/mol, 40.87 kJ/mol, 33.41 kJ/mol, and 32.17 kJ/mol, respectively. The obtained results indicate that MSW is a high-performance fuel with significant application potential.

The study of municipal solid waste management was carried out on the example of the city of Uman, the features of the municipal waste collection were considered. One of the promising utilization methods of the municipal waste organic component is proposed — anaerobic fermentation with subsequent composting of the resulting products. Urban population growth, industrialization, urbanization and economic prosperity lead to an increase in municipal solid waste (MSW). The aim of the work was to consider the characteristics of municipal solid waste management using the example of the city of Uman; inspect the features of collecting municipal waste; consider a separate collection system; identify problems and possible solutions. According to the statistics of Uman city council, 73-75 tons of municipal waste per day are delivered to the landfill. The control is carried out on the composition of the waste entering the landfill. Sorting takes place using a sorting line, which was put into operation in October 2016. Removal of municipal solid waste from the residential sector is carried out according to the schedule. The waste from the private sector of the city is removed during the day. Transportation (transport) of municipal waste is carried out by specially equipped vehicles. On the plots of the private residential sector, the collection of municipal waste is carried out by containerless and container methods. The containerless method is used in those areas of private building, where the possibility of the garbage truck's driving and its maneuvering are limited. Analysis of the current state of municipal solid waste management in the city of Uman showed that the main reasons for the increase in the volume of environmental pollution due to municipal solid waste is the lack of a high-quality management system in the field of MSW management, and especially the outdated waste collection and transportation scheme. The state of MSW management does not meet modern requirements. At the landfill, as a result of the introduction of the technology for the production of biogas from municipal solid waste, it is possible to obtain marketable products — biogas and compost. The city can receive income from the use of biogas as an alternative source of energy for heating buildings or from its consuming by the population. For the city of Uman, the volume of biogas formation at the MSW landfill in 2018 would have amounted to 5,441,280 m3, and in 2019 – 5,424,930 m3.Thus, it is possible to obtain significant volumes of biogas for the production of both heat and electricity. As a result of the study, recommendations were developed to improve the system for collecting municipal waste in the city of Uman. One of the promising utilization methods of the municipal waste organic component in the city of Uman is anaerobic fermentation followed by composting of the resulting products.

This two-part paper, which consists of Part 1: waste flow and energy potential, and Part 2: energy balance and carbon footprint, respectively, aims to evaluate alternatives to energy recovery from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in Pyongyang. This first part focuses on an evaluation of alternatives to energy recovery from MSW in terms of waste flow and energy potential analysis. This paper proposes three alternatives to energy recovery from MSW, and conducts an evaluation of energy potential for the alternatives, based on an analysis of the existing MSW management options (i.e., recycling & reuse, incineration, landfill, and composting) in the municipality, inclusive of MSW composition and characteristics of waste flow (i.e., refuse-derived fuel) being fed to energy recovery. The results show that alternative 3 (i.e., gasification reactor) could produce the largest electricity, followed by alternative 1 (i.e., grate combustor and fixed dome reactor) and alternative 2 (i.e., fluidized bed combustor). In the meanwhile, alternative 1 accounts for 29.9% of the largest gross efficiency, followed by alternative 3 and alternative 2, as 29.7% and 28.0%, respectively. This study can provide a possibility of energy recovery from MSW to the local planners in Pyongyang.

The article deals with the modeling of the system of environmentally oriented management in the field of municipal solid waste. Over the past years, the federal law on production and consumption waste has undergone a significant number of amendments, changes and additions. It should be noted that a number of changes were purely technical in nature. Currently, Russia has launched a reform of municipal solid waste, which resulted in the transition of the subjects of the Russian Federation to the regulation of the sphere of solid municipal waste management. The main law in the field of municipal solid waste management is the Federal Law of June 24, 1998 No. 89-FZ “On Production and Consumption Waste”. The main goal of the reform is to prevent the harmful effects of production and consumption waste on human health and the environment and to ensure a balance of interests between service providers and consumers. Recommendations for improving the system of environmentally oriented management in the field of waste disposal are proposed. The conclusion is made about the fragmentation of the solid municipal waste market and the approach to setting fees for waste removal, while as part of the transition of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to a new system for handling municipal solid waste, the approach to regulating this industry is significantly changing.

This study explores trends and perspectives of Lithuania’s trade in agricultural and food products with the BRIC countries. Agriculture is one of the priority sectors of Lithuania’s economy and plays an important economic and social role. The share of agricultural and food products within the overall foreign trade of Lithuania is significant, and exports to the BRIC countries account for nearly one third of the Lithuanian agricultural and food products exports. BRICs economic development and growing population leads to the increasing food consumption. The potential of these markets is attractive for Lithuania’s foreign trade. Therefore, consideration of trade flow in food and agricultural products between Lithuania and the BRIC countries is currently very topical. The econometric forecasting model of Lithuania’s Export and Import flows, created by the authors, was applied to predict trade with the BRIC countries in the medium-term period. The authors analyzed the structure of Lithuania’s trade in agricultural and food products with the specific BRIC countries, estimated influence of external and internal factors changes.

Application of municipal solid and wood waste, as dominant sources of biomass, could be a promising alternative for producing energy from renewables via thermochemical gasification technology. In this paper, a study of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and excurrent gas composition produced by the municipal solid waste (MSW) and wood biomass gasification is presented. Thermogravimetric and heat flow curves for waste samples were performed at the temperature interval of 20-890 °C with a heating rate of 10 °C min-1 under a nitrogen atmosphere. According to thermal analysis data, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves, the degradation stages of waste samples was determined, which correspond to the mono- or bimodal evolution of volatile compounds and the degradation of the resulting carbon residue. The gasification experiments were conducted in a high-pressure quartz reactor at temperatures of 850, 900, and 950 °C, using steam (0.3 g/min) and argon (2 dm3/min) as the gasifying agents. To ascertain the syngas composition, gas chromatography was employed in conjunction with a thermal conductivity detector. Both types of biomass showed remarkably similar syngas compositions. The highest concentration of hydrogen-rich gases was recorded at 950 °C for wood biomass, with 42.9 vol% and 25.2 vol% for hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO), and for MSW, with an average 44.2 vol% and 18 vol% for H2 and CO. Higher temperatures improved the syngas composition by promoting endothermic gasification reactions, increasing hydrogen yield while decreasing tar and solid yields. This research helped to comprehend the evolution of the gasification process and the relationship between increased H2 and CO production as the gasification temperature increased.