Biomass and wastes: Upgrading alternative fuels

All human and industrial processes produce wastes, that is, normally unused and undesirable products of a specific process. Generation and recovery of solid wastes varies dramatically from country to country and deserves special mention. Biomass energy is one of humanity's earliest sources of energy, particularly in rural areas where it is often the only accessible and affordable source of energy. The burning velocity of pulverized biomass fuels is considerably higher than that of coals. Utilization of biomass as fuel for power production offers the advantage of a renewable and CO2-neutral fuel. Agricultural residues such as wheat straw may have a high content of chlorine and potassium, elements that are very undesirable in power plant fuels. It was observed that the investigated biomass materials showed different combustion characteristics. Although the structural, proximate, and ultimate analyses results of biomass and wastes differ considerably, some properties of the biomass samples such as the hydrogen content, the sulfur content, and the ignition temperatures changed in a narrow interval.