10 Examples of Biomass

The biomass, in ecology, refers to the total amount of living matter contained in an individual, a rung of a food chain, a population or even a ecosystem, expressed in weight per unit volume.

On the other hand, biomass is also the organic material that is generated through a biological process, either spontaneous or provoked, and that has the necessary properties to become a source of combustible energy. We could call this last meaning the "Useful biomass", since his area of ​​interest is specific to obtaining biofuels (agricultural fuels). For example: firewood, food scraps, livestock waste.

This term has become more relevant since the rise of biofuels, necessary as an alternative to fossil fuels and its fluctuating market. However, the “organic matter” required for biomass is often confused with living matter, that is, with the one that integrates the living beings like trees (even though much of the bark that supports them may indeed be dead).

It is also a mistake to use the term biomass

as a synonym for the potential energy that said organic matter contains, more than anything because the relationship between the amount of matter usable organic and the energy that can be obtained from it is variable and depends on many factors.

The "useful" biomass

Biomass serves to get power. To do this, it is based on taking advantage of the decomposition of organic matter under controlled environmental conditions, in order to obtain mixtures of hydrocarbons of energy potential, especially when it comes to powering internal combustion engines, such as those in a car.

We can identify three types of useful biomass:

Advantages and disadvantages of biomass

The use of biomass as fuel has positive and negative aspects:

Examples of useful biomass

1. Firewood. A classic example of the use of organic matter is the collection of firewood to burn and thus obtain hot, both to heat a home by means of chimneys, and to feed a fire in which the food. This method dates from time immemorial and still persists among the traditions human.
2. Nut and seed shells. These waste of the intake of food products are commonly discarded in the garbage, but have a non-negligible combustible value. In many rural homes it is stored and used to fuel fires, or even in obtaining vegetable oils for lubricant.
3. Leftovers. The organic matter left over from our meals has a relative energy potential, not only as food for processing processes. compost and soil fertilization, but also in obtaining biogas through anaerobic digestion processes (without the presence of oxygen). The bacteria that star in this process produce high levels of methane, similar to what happens in our intestines, which makes biogas highly flammable.
4. Beets, cane, corn. Fruits rich in sugars, such as cane, beet, corn, are usable in obtaining bioethanol, through a process of fermentation similar to that of obtaining liqueurs, since it produces a hydrated alcohol. 5% of the water is removed from said alcohol and an energetically usable fuel is obtained, similar to gasoline.
5. Stems, pruning residues, wood and other greens. In the body of the plants sugars such as cellulose, starches and others are stored carbohydrates fruit of photosynthesis, which are usable as biomass in conversion processes into fermentable sugars to obtain biofuels. Many of these residues are collectible without sacrificing food, since many plants must be pruned, replanted or uprooted after bearing fruit and this material is usually discarded.
6. Corn, wheat, sorghum, barley, and other grains. Similar to obtaining beer, these cereals and vegetables are extremely rich in starches, which are complex carbohydrates from which bioethanol can be obtained through alcoholic fermentation.
7. Sawdust or sawdust. One possible source of biomass is found in the huge amounts of powdered wood disposed of by sawmills and the timber industry as such. All this dust has the same fuel potential as wood, as well as being a source of cellulose for obtaining fermentable sugars in bioalcohols.
8. Wine must and sulphured wines. Decomposed wines and must residues from their manufacture are sources of biomass, since they provide raw alcohols from which the sulfur dioxide (SO₂), their methanol load (corrosive to combustion engines) and finally they can be used to obtain bioethanol.
9. Livestock waste. Livestock is an important source of organic matter that can serve as biomass, such as ruminant droppings (whose exclusive plant cellulose feed is promising) or even the fats leftovers from animal use.
10. Household residual oils. A source of liquid biomass is the oils that we discard after cooking, mostly made from sunflower, canola, even olive, in short, vegetable products. The production of biodiesel from them requires work of filtered out from solid waste, transesterification steps to convert triglycerides to methyl esters, and the addition of methanol. After neutralizing the pH from the result, biodiesel and glycerol are obtained. The latter is withdrawn and is usable for the soap industry, while biodiesel is purified and used as fuel.