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Biomass is an inexhaustible and friendly environment resource of energy, which could contribute the next years in covering our increased energy requirements. WHAT IS BIOMASS
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 Biomass Treatment Processes
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ENERGY UTILIZATION OF BIOMASS Biomass is used as fuel for Thermal and Electricity Production. The technology that biomass is treated depends from the available biomass resource. There are two (2) processes according to the following diagram: |
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A BIOMASS COMBUSTION POWER PLANT A typical biomass Power Plant consists of the fuel store, the furnace and boiler and a steam turbine or an ORC system, which converts the thermal energy in mechanical and then in electrical energy via a generator. In the ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) system an organic liquid is used as the working fluid instead of water in the steam cycle. |
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A BIOMASS GASIFICATION POWER PLANT
Gasification is a process that converts organic or fossil based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This is achieved by reacting the material with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is called syngas and is itself a fuel. When we use oxygen during the gasification process the produced syngas has a much better heating value.
The gasification process occurs in gasifiers. Currently, there are several types of gasifiers available for commercial use, depending from the “gasification agent” (steam, oxygen and/or air), the supply of the required heat, the operation pressure and the designing (counter-current fixed bed, co-current fixed bed, fluidized bed etc). The produced syngas from the gasifiers is burned in a gas turbine in order to produce electricity. The advantage of gasification is that using the syngas is potentially more efficient than direct combustion of the original fuel because it can be combusted at higher temperatures or even in fuel cells, so that the thermodynamic upper limit to the efficiency defined by Carnot's rule is higher. Syngas may be burned directly in gas engines, used to produce methanol and hydrogen. Gasification can also begin with material which would otherwise have been disposed of such as biodegradable waste. Gasification of fossil fuels is currently widely used on industrial scales to generate electricity. |
