Biomass Chemical Loops: A Sustainable Future

A group of researchers and their team (Zhao et al.) from various Universities (Tsinghua University, China, Southeast University, China, Columbia University, New York, Imperial College London, and The Ohio State University, USA) have surveyed a review on biomass-based chemical loops, its good, bad, and future aspects.

Zhao et al., have discussed the biomass, which is considered to be one of a promising renewable energy resource owing to its high moisture content, low energy density, and complex ash components. Biomass is a major energy source, it is considered to be a carbon-neutral renewable and abundant energy resource. The use of carbon in biomass for energy production, which was obtained from atmospheric CO₂, is considered to be a carbon-neutral fuel. When this biomass is combined with carbon capture technology, then the overall energy conversion progress will be in negative in terms of net CO₂ emission, which is to be termed as BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). Although these approaches are limited in terms of materials and energy integration, it could lead to truly disruptive technologies for BECCS. Further, they reported that recently, a new generation of transformative energy conversion technologies along with the chemical looping was developed. Therefore, biomass utilization is very essential towards a sustainable future with ever increases the need for carbon-based materials. Chemical looping processes (CLPs) are considered to have a potential in gasification, combustion, and reforming of biomass where the cyclic processes are carried out as a set of subreactions within the use of looping materials (LMs). Biomass is an alternative fuel for CLPs, its resultant product can be energy/heat or syngas. It is a complex mixture of both organic and inorganic materials. The main essential components were the organic materials with the extractives, and fibre or cell wall components, while the inorganic material is comprised of ash components [1].

Zhao et al., further reported about the biomass is compared with coal, the moisture content of biomass is found to be very higher, which leads to a low heating value/energy density for biomass feedstocks. It can also see that the biomass (lignin) has lower oxygen content and higher carbon content than cellulose or hemicellulose. Therefore they believed that biomass with a higher heating value corresponds to higher lignin content.

Figure 1. Chemical looping processes (CLPs) for biomass conversion [1].

Advantages and limitations of biomass are considered to be a good fuel:

Advantages: 1) Renewable nature, 2) Low ignition temperature, 3) Low ash content, 4) Low content of pollutants, 5) Negative emission potential with close to carbon neutral.

Limitations: 1) Low energy density, 2) Low ash melting point, 3) High moisture content, 4) High alkaline and alkaline earth metals contents, 5) Complicated composition with inconsistent feedstock.

The ash contents approximately followed the decreasing order of animal biomass > aquatic biomass > contaminated biomass > herbaceous biomass and agriculture biomass > wood and woody biomass. In general, coal ash yield ranges from 6–52% with a mean percentage of approximately 21%, thus, compared to coal, biomass is usually considered a low ash content solid fuel [2].

Although biomass is considered to be an important energy source, its further development is lessened due to the dependence on fossil fuels. If we have to consider and expect the carbon-neutral nature with significant environmental benefits, then the world is seeking for clean, renewable energy solutions and to reduce the net greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, they discussed biomass-based CLPs are gained of attractive and significant attention with great potential. This provides a sustainable future and a pathway for decarbonized energy and materials production.

However, the raised question is how to get this technology whether in good or bad to attain a sustainable future? Let us now see that, what are the good, bad, and future aspects based upon the CLPs.

Good:

Low energy loss and capacity for inherent CO₂ separation.
No additional energy is required for CO₂ capture (energy is only required for compression for transport) when biomass is used in CLPs.
The minimization of overall exergy loss with appropriate carbon storage leads to a negative carbon balance.
Improvement in the operation of CLPs due to the relatively high quantity of volatile matter, low sulfur, and an ash content of biomass.
To utilize biomass resources in an efficient manner, biomass-based CLPs has to be coupled with the significant potential to effectively remove CO₂ (net) from the atmosphere.

Bad:

Looping material deactivation.
High solid recirculation rate.
The requirement for separation of looping materials and biomass ash.

Future:

Development of biomass gasification processes for syngas generation [3].
Holistic evaluation of the system operating pressure or ensuring the cost-competitiveness of biomass-based CLPs.
Enhancement of the multifunctional nature of LM and its research studies. Linkage of industrial processes and collaboration between the power and chemical industries.
Addition to screening for holistic evaluation of the system.
To obtain energy from biomass waste, biomass-based CLPs are a potential strategy with a net carbon negative balance[4].

Our SNB team recommended this research article to help the reader to know about a new generation of transformative energy with a conversion technology of including chemical looping (CLPs) based on biomass was developed. In order to accelerate the realization of BECCS as a crucial technology, some basic fundamental knowledge should be gained from this research study with other biomass conversion and CLPs technologies to fight against the climatic change. Thus, biomass-based CLPs are found to be an efficient and important technology for the future to startup with carbon-neutral fuels.

References

X. Zhao et al., Energy Environ. Sci.,10, 1885 (2017).
S. V. Vassilev et al., Fuel., 89, 913 (2010).
L.-S. Fan, Chemical Looping Partial Oxidation Gasification: Reforming, and Chemical Syntheses, Cambridge UniversityPress, London (2017).
M. Kathe et al., Energy Environ. Sci., DOI:10.1039/C6EE03701A (2017).

Blog Written By

Dr. Y. Sasikumar

School of Materials Science and Engineering

Tianjin University of Technology, China.

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Editors

Dr. A. S. Ganeshraja

Dr. K. Rajkumar

Dr. S. Chandrasekar

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