The transition of the energy system from fossil to renewable sources is fostered in different regions of the world. Biomethane, as a substitute for natural gas, is one way to increase fuel independence by using local resources and reduce the environmental impact. This paper gives an overview of the possible application of biomethane in Europe (with focus on the EU) and China and discusses the relevance of coherent frame condition for market development. Both regions,...

The gasification characteristics of three different biomass feedstock samples (straw pellet, softwood pellet and torrefied wood chips) were investigated in this study. The effect of biomass type on gas composition, gas yield, lower heating value (LHV), carbon conversion efficiency, the amounts of tar and sulfur compounds were investigated in laboratory scale bubbling fluidized bed gasifier using air as a gasification agent and quartz as a bed material. Permanent gases were analyzed by gas chromatograph (GC)...

Reforming of tars and methane (CH4) in syngas is a significant challenge for low-temperature biomass gasification. For a dual fluidised bed gasifier (DFBG), catalytic bed materials are usually used to promote the reforming reactions. Intensive contact between gas and catalytic bed material at high temperature enhances the internal tar/CH4 reforming. The MIUN gasifier, built for research into synthetic fuel production, is a dual fluidised bed gasifier (DFBG). The results with different bed materials (silica sand,...

Dry anaerobic digestion of Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) was performed in a pilot plant. The biogas produced could be a feasible fuel for SOFC's stack generators to produce electric energy and heat. Due to the high fuel purity requirements, an accurate characterization of the volatile organic compounds mixture contained in the biogas is mandatory and performed on-line over the entire digestion process. One of the most promising approaches for high sensitivity on-line...

At the Universität Hohenheim (Stuttgart, Germany) a plant oil pressure stove 'Protos' was developed in cooperation with Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (Munich, Germany). The stove shows satisfactory performance and reliability; however, combustion deposits are formed inside the vaporizer when using plant oil as fuel. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of total contamination content of J .curcas oil on the technical performance and formation of deposits in the plant oil...

Secondary (recycled) fibre paper mills within Europe are significant users of both heat and electricity. The cost of producing this energy is increasing year upon year. These mills are also significant producers of de¬inking sludge and reject waste material. The disposal of these waste fractions is both unsustainable and costly. The focus of this work is to utilise the waste fractions produced at secondary fibre paper mills for the on¬site production of combined heat and...

Because domestic heating appliances have the advantage to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas, their use is increasing and largely recommended by European governments. Some recent studies revealed that they are source of near a hundred of other chemical compounds. One of the most important challenges today is to optimize combustion processes in order to reduce gaseous pollutants and particles in the fumes. In this study, two optimized combustion chambers are presented and tested. The first...

The AFO project was set up to discover the best tools for activating private forest owners and establishing wood fuel supply clusters for bioenergy production. It aimed to increase the utilisation of Europe's vast forest fuel reserves. This was expected to benefit both the economy of the forest owners and rural areas and increase the use of renewable energy sources. The project was carried out between 2009 and 2012. The project aimed to activate an...

The biomass resources in some European countries are limited and might not suffice to reach the ambiguous bioenergy goals up to 2020. Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine are countries with a large potential of biomass that can be used to produce biogas which could be than upgraded to biomethane. With an adequate framework in place the import of biomethane produced in Eastern Europe via existing gas pipelines would be feasible and could partly substitute natural...

The aim of this work was to simulate and optimize the two¬step non¬isothermal autohydrolysis of wheat straw cellulose and hemicelluloses in a batch reactor. The process parameters investigated herein were the reaction ending temperature and the reaction time. A non¬isothermal kinetic model, developed in an earlier work, was used to simulate and optimize the process. The results of fitting this model to the experimental data were compared to the results obtained through the severity factor...

Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a perennial rhizomatous grass currently considered as an alternative crop for the production of bioenergy. However, cultivation of Arundo needs the improvement of agamic propagation, because the use of stem cuttings or rhizomes requires a demanding and labor-intensive manual effort, thus resulting monetarily expensive. Objective of the study was to verify the applicability of mechanical sectioning of rhizomes directly in field using a rotary tiller on which the hoes...

The scope of this study was to assess the adequacy of four models (Blackman response, negative exponential, rectangular hyperbola and non-rectangular hyperbola) for describing the CO2 assimilation irradiance¬response curve in leaves of giant reed, a promising energy crop with remarkable biomass productivity in Mediterranean areas. A field study was conducted in Anzola dell'Emilia (Bologna), Northern Italy, during the year 2011, on a crop stand of giant reed established in 2007. Periodical measures of CO2 assimilation...

One of the major obstacles for the application of biomass gasification systems is the relatively high tar content of the producer gas that inhibits its use in engines or turbines or in catalytic processes like in methanisation or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis without further gas cleaning. The determination of the tar content with conventional methods is very time consuming and does not allow a continuous online monitoring of the gas quality. The approach, to avoid these drawbacks,...

Biomass is one pillar in renewable energy utilization. In all applications – heat, power and fuel – high conversion efficiency is necessary. Decentralised electricity production in combination with and based on biomass still finds some difficulties in real applications. There is also a deficit of proven technologies, especially in small-scale gasification and use of producer gas in internal combustion engines. One concept favoured in a recent project is the connection of a wood chip furnace...

This study aims to design the biomass energy system considering various types of biomass resources, fuel production technologies, and energy conversion technologies. The modeling and evaluation of each biomass energy system are studied by using life cycle assessment. However the system design methodology is not established for different types of biomass resources and technologies yet. In this paper, the integrated biomass energy system is designed. The system consists of 5 main processes; Cultivation and Collection,...

Within the project "Evaluation of biomass crops in eastern and northern Ontario" funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) of Canada, a field experiment was carried out with the aim of investigating the effects of planting density on crop growth and sugar content of three genotypes of sweet sorghum cultivated under Eastern Canada climate conditions. Total fresh biomass production, on average of the two experimental factors was 42.5 t ha-1....

INSA is a new indicator system, which is able to assess the sustainability of agriculture on single farm level and in the near future also on regional level. Our first result is a set of 38 indicators, including 18 adopted indicators, 2 enhanced indicators and 18 new indicators. In order to measure and monitor a sustainable production of biomass, it is reasonable to apply an approach integrating the economic, ecologic and social dimension of the...

The use of alternative and renewable energy resources is in the focus of numerous investigations, to meet challenges such as reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensuring security of supply at affordable prices. The aviation sector is embedded in the EU policy package although jet fuels constitute presently only about 4¬6 percent to the global crude oil consumption. In 2011, the European Commission has launched the European Advanced Biofuels Flight Path, an industry wide...

China is at current facing the most rapid period of urbanization in history, but energy demand coverage, the high petroleum import ratio, environmental protection and global climate change issues have to be tackled in order to ensure a sustainable and globally acceptable socioeconomic development. The large scale application of Biogas from biomass as source of energy and organic petrochemical compounds could impact positively on the above¬mentioned problems and Chinas petrochemical research is anticipating an integrated...

Presently, many investigations are carried out for developing the effective pretreatment and utilization process of cellulosic materials in the World. Effective utilization of not only cellulose but also lignin contained in softwood that is recognized to be too difficult to delignify and convert into fuel and materials was developed using a steam explosion with super high temperature and pressure steam, extraction, and various conversion methods. Furthermore, since this new steam explosion apparatus can produce a...

Purpose of work was to assess the logistic chain considering different scenarios in terms of biomass (tree crops, grasses and crop residues), transport and economic contexts. To this end, several solutions with available transportation means, enabling to move the biomass from field to the processing plant, have been examined: agricultural machineries (tractors, farm truck) as well as road transport means (road train or truck). For economic evaluations, quantity and the quality of transported biomass have...

One of the most effective ways to reduce the cost of hydrolysis is to reuse enzymes. To do this, it is important to know how much enzyme activity remains in the liquid phase or in the solid residue. In the solid residue, however, enzymes are absorbed onto the substrate and are difficult to completely separate from it, so it is not easy to estimate the activity by the same method as for the liquid phase....

Representatives of poplar genus, such as European aspen (Populus tremula L.) and its fast¬growing hybrids, are recognized as being among the most suitable tree species for short rotation coppicing in Northern Europe. In vitro culture is one of the tools for fast propagation of selected aspen genotypes. The present study was designed to test if the conditions suitable for increased accumulation of plant¬produced gas inside a culture vessel could contribute to commercially desirable changes in...

Incentive policies for renewable energies (wind, water, solar and biomass energy) are being quite effective in Italy and there are good prospects for the achievement of the target set by the National Action Plan for renewable energies. New renewables such wind and photovoltaics have received increasing attention and have been supported by an effective incentive system. Photovoltaics in particular, which in Italy has benefited from the best rates in the world, contributes less than 3%,...

The fast pyrolysis of rice husk has been performed in the 400¬600 ºC range in a continuous pyrolysis bench¬scale plant equipped with a conical spouted bed reactor. The effect of temperature on the pyrolysis yields and main chemical products of the bio¬oil has been determined. The yield of bio¬oil peaks (70%) at 450 ºC. The bio¬oil has been analysed by GC¬MS, and its major organic compounds in the whole range of temperatures are phenols and...