Biomass Energy:

Biomass fuels can provide heat, electricity and mechanical power. Fig. 13
illustrates
the general Biomass options. There are five basic categories of conversion process
for converting biomass to heat or fuels and these are listed below: [15]

Direct combustion
Pyrolysis
Liquefaction
Gasification
H Biochemical conversion (anaerobic digestion and fermentation)
N.B.: The highlighted process is what the doctor was talking to us about. A whole section
explaining it thoroughly is available in the attached document named Biomass; section 3.4.

Direct Combustion:



According to the literature review, two technologies have been devised to produce power from
biomass. One of these technologies I found very interesting and familiar to most of us. Its called
the Organic Rankine Cycle. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is similar to the cycle of a
conventional steam turbine, except for the fluid, which operates in the turbine is a high molecular
mass organic fluid. The organic working fluid confined in a closed and leakage-free circuit is
vaporised using the heat of the hot source in the evaporator, which can be a shell-and-tube heat
exchanger. The organic fluid vapour expands in the turbine and is then condensed using cold
water in the shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Alternatively, ambient air can be used for cooling.
The condensate is pumped back to the evaporator thus closing the
thermodynamic cycle. Hot and cold sources are not directly in contact with the working
fluid or with the turbine. For high temperature applications, a regenerator downstream of
the turbine is also added, to further improve the cycle performance. The high molecular
mass working fluid allows exploiting efficiently, low temperature heat sources to produce
electricity in a wide range of power outputs.

The ORC has the following advantages:
1. High cycle efficiency
2. Very high turbine efficiency (up to 85%)
3. Low mechanical stress of the turbine, due to low peripheral speed
4. Low RPM of the turbine allowing the direct drive of the electric generator without
reduction gear













High Efficiency Rankine (HER) turbo generators have been commercially developed by
many manufacturers to produce electricity in small power-per-unit turbines associated
with biomass combustion systems.



















N.B.: There are modifications to this process so as to increase the efficiency of the cycle
and so on.. This is the other process known as Gasification.