Biomass is the first source of energy to have been exploited by men, and for a long time it was the most important. It was only with the industrial revolution and hydrocarbons (coal, oil) that it lost its importance in industrialized countries. However, as a renewable and carbon-neutral energy source, biomass is receiving renewed interest.
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The first form of exploitation of the biomass is simply the activity physical. The transformation of food into energy muscle has long been one of the main sources of energy in economies, at least until industrialization. Nowadays and in industrialized societies, this form of energy is only used for utilities than for soft modes of locomotion such as walking or bike.
In addition to having improved the performance of muscular energy, technology has also made it possible to develop other, more artificial forms of exploitation of biomass. These technological sectors are the combustionthe gasification and the production of biofuel.
Combustion is the simplest and oldest technique for converting biomass into energy. This transformation of wood (renowned on the occasion wood energy) and agricultural, industrial and domestic waste of vegetable origin produces in fact heat (and some light). The heat thus produced is used for cooking, heating, hot water production and electricity production. The apps combustion technologies range from simple fire of wood to boilers and power plants with high efficiency and cogeneration.
Biogas and biofuel, more practical than wood energy
Technologies that transform biomass solid in gaseous biomass (biogas) or liquid (biofuel) represent a significant advantage because biogas and biofuel are easier to use.
For example, gasification, i.e. the transformation of solid biomass into gas (biogas), ensures a marked improvement in cooking: a biogas cooker requires a quantity of primary biomass that is 50 to 90% lower than a wood cooker.
Gasification is often used to recycle organic waste biochemically. The matter organic solid is thus transformed into gas by bacteria. These gases, most often methane, contain 20 to 40% of the energy initially contained in the solid biomass. Currently, scientists and engineers are trying to use this biochemical pathway to produce dihydrogen (H2).
Another way, thermochemical, transforms the biomass at high temperature and in the presence of reagents gaseous (water vapour, oxygen) into synthetic gas (syngas) composed of dihydrogen, carbon monoxide (CO) andhydrocarbons gaseous. This syngas is itself a fuel, but it can also be used to produce biofuels.
Biofuels are a response to the problems of transport vis-à-vis the dependence on a oil in limited quantities and emissions of CO2. In liquid form, biomass can indeed fuel vehicles combustion engine by simply adapting current engines and fuel delivery systems.
The production of biofuel is concentrated within three sectors known as first generation. The sector oil uses vegetable oils, raw or transformed into diester, to feed the diesel engines. The sector alcohol transform by fermentation the sugars plants in alcoholessentiallyethanolwhich can then be transformed into ETBE. The sector gas converted biogas and syngas into liquid hydrocarbons.
The production of biofuel from second generationi.e. from the non-food parts of plants, fromalgae and or organic waste, is still under development.
The biomass, renewable energy with high potential and neutral vis-à-vis the weathertherefore seems to be one of the solutions to the transition from a development based on fossil fuels to more sustainable development. It could thus play an important role in the development of greener modes of transport thanks to the production of second-generation biofuels andhydrogen of biological origin.
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