Biomass for Combined Heat and Power

Production and Distribution of Electricity and Heat

One of the most common definitions of biomass considers "any degradable organic matter, derived from plants or animals and available on a renewable basis", used for energy purposes in a wide variety of processes and technologies: from traditional heat production to modern production systems of electricity and heat, to the production of biofuels for the transport sector. Biomass can be classified into woody biomass, agricultural and agro-industrial residues, waste. Although in theory different transformation processes are available, nowadays each type of biomass is mainly used, based on its characteristics, in technologies based mainly on:
1) direct combustion of solid biomass, in which the chemical energy contained in the biomass is transformed into heat inside a combustor, transferred to a heat exchange fluid (steam, oil, exhaust, etc.), and transformed into mechanical energy in a turbine connected to an alternator for the production of electricity.
2) gasification by thermochemical or biological processes, in which the biomass is transformed into a combustible gaseous mixture that feed a burner or an internal combustion engine.
The state of development of the aforementioned technologies makes it possible to define as mature those based on direct combustion and the production of biogas by anaerobic digestion with subsequent combustion. The development of gasification can be considered commercial only for large-scale systems associated with steam generators and, to a lesser extent, for small-scale systems coupled to internal combustion engines, while applications with fuel cells or gas turbines are still under development or demonstration.

28-06-2022

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