Biomass

1. Presentation

Wood pellets used for power generation

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel.
Biomass resources include wood, agricultural waste, animal residues, and other living-cell material that can be burned to produce heat energy. They also include algae, sewage and other organic substances that may be used to make energy through chemical processes.

There are a number of technological options available to make use of a wide variety of biomass types as a renewable energy source. Conversion technologies may release the energy directly, in the form of heat or electricity, or may convert it to another form, such as liquid biofuel or combustible biogas. While for some classes of biomass resource there may be a number of usage options, for others there may be only one appropriate technology.

2. Market Analysis

Biomass supplies an increasing share of electricity and heat and continues to provide the majority of heating produced with renewable sources. An estimated 62 GW of biomass power capacity was in operation by the end of 2010. Biomass heat markets are expanding steadily, particularly in Europe but also in the United States, China, India, and elsewhere.

Trends include increasing consumption of solid biomass pellets (for heat and power) and use of biomass in combined heat and power (CHP) plants and in centralized district heating systems. China leads the world in the number of household biogas plants, and gasifiers are used increasingly for heat applications in small and large enterprises in India and elsewhere. Biomethane (purified biogas) is increasingly injected into pipelines (particularly in Europe) to replace natural gas in power and CHP plants.

The European Union’s gross electricity production from biomass increased nearly 10.2% between 2008 and 2009, from 79.3 TWh to 87.4 TWh. Germany’s total power output from biomass increased by an annual average of more than 22% during the past decade, to an estimated 28.7 TWh with a total of 4.9 GW capacity in 2010. By the end of 2010, bioenergy accounted for 5.5% of Germany’s total electricity consumption, making it the country’s second largest renewable generating source after wind power. 

There is increasing interest in Africa and the Middle East as well, where several countries – including Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda – have existing biomass power capacity or plans for future development

The biomass power and heat industry supplies and uses solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels from forestry, agricultural, and municipal residues. Much of this diverse industry is centered in Europe where, despite fiscal austerity, manufacturing and project-development firms saw modest growth in 2010, reflecting the continued push from EU targets and national action plans for renewables. Leading biomass conversion equipment manufacturers are located primarily in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Poland, and Germany. Europe has the largest wood pellet production industry in the world, with 670 pellet plants under operation, producing 10 million tonnes in 2009. The growth of wood pellet production facilities, in particular, continues to be a notable trend in the biomass industry.

3. Commercial potential for the Carnot engine

Our goal is to place this engine on the power generation market. As of today, biomass power generation is a fast growing sector which uses both solid biomass (agricultural by product, woods, organic waste) and biogas (waste, landfill gas) to fuel the power plant.
 

Landfill gas collector

As an external combustion device, the Carnot engine can run directly on any available heat source. It could be used for low cost power generation system as well as raw biogas (with high concentration of corrosive CO2 and H2S). Another promising market is the hot exhaust gas produced by biogas turbines. Our engine can exploits this heat flow to produce electricity (we have already received some requests from biogas power generation facilities).


4. Conclusion 

Biomass energy is by far the most important renewable energy with 10% of the world's primary energy demand. Its great versatility allows to produce fuel, electricity, heat and gas out of various biomass resources.

Due to its characteristics, the Carnot engine will be suitable for power generation application. During the past 10 years, there has been a significant growth in biomass electricity production, forecasts show that this expansion will remain consistent. Our engine can be used in solid biomass and biogas applications, from a sophisticated power plant system to a low cost unit. For instance, it can be plugged on basic biomass systems or enhances the overall efficiency of biogas facilities by generating power out of the biogas exhaust heat.