BIONEREGY SECTOR — branch of electricity sector based on use of biofuels produced on the basis of biomass. Biomass includes biologically renewable substances which are subject to biological decomposition (agricultural waste (plant growing and cattle breeding), forestry waste and waste of the sectors technologically related to forestry, as well as organic part of the industrial and domestic waste.

Biomass which is grown regularly and when its use as an energy source is not accompanied by reduction of green space is recognized to be a renewable resource, and is considered to be environmentally neutral (has zero balance of carbon dioxide emission).

POTENTIAL USE IN UKRAINE

In Ukraine, 98% of all energy produced from renewable energy sources is wind, solar and hydro energy. The experts predict rapid growth of clean biomass energy which is widely used in the world. Though currently portion of biomass among the alternative energy sources is only about 2%, it has a huge potential today and is one of the most perspective clean energy sources in Ukraine.

The most widespread types of biomass which are used in Ukraine as raw materials for fuel production and use of this fuel for electricity and heat energy production, include:

•    straw, corn and sunflower culm, etc. (bales, pellets, briquettes);
•    arillus and other waste from processing of sunflower, grain and other agricultural crops (pellets, briquettes);
•    wood tissue, waste wood and products of wood processing (pellets; wood sawdust; briquettes; wood);
•    livestock and poultry waste;
•    vegetable waste and products of their processing;
•    food industry plant waste, peat;
•    annual and perennial grass biomass (energy willow, sorghum, silver grass, switch grass, etc.);
•    fruit biomass.

HOW BIOMASS IS FORMED?

 
TYPES OF BIOMASS FOR SOLID BIOFUEL PRODUCTION 

• energy crop;

• wooden biomass (wood, wood chopping waste and industrial wood residue);

• farm and agricultural waste.

Commercial Forms of Solid Biofuel:

 
Map of biomass cogeneration location (BGU, CHP) in Ukraine, location of pellet and briquette suppliers

http://saee.gov.ua/uk/activity/vidnovlyuvana-enerhetyka/potentsial

INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES

In EU countries, heat energy is also produced from such clean energy source as biomass. For example, in Sweden the share of biomass in heat production is 60%, in Austria – 31%, in Finland – 27%, in Denmark – 25%, in Latvia – 15%. According to 2020 forecast, production of heat energy in the EU will remain the most important bioenergy sector, accounting for 65% of total energy consumption from renewables.

In 2014, 80 thousand farms in Poland grew about 3.2 million t of canola that was used to produce about 750,000 t of biodiesel. Biodiesel can be used as fuel for modern automobiles, and adding 15% of it to conventional fuels does not even require reconfiguration of engines.

In general, the use of biomass in Poland reached the level of 7% in the total balance of energy consumption.  

http://saee.gov.ua/uk/activity/vidnovlyuvana-enerhetyka/suchasny-stan 

Technical solutions (specifications, equipment, peculiarities of installation and operation, producers, advantages and disadvantages)

When biomass is used for heat energy production, it is necessary to take into account its peculiarities: dependence of properties (such as humidity) on atmospheric conditions during its harvesting and storage; dependence of biomass quantity on the size of harvest; frequency of biomass renewal natural cycles. To ensure reliability of heat supply when  biomass is used as fuel, there must exist the backup facilities on conventional energy resources. In addition, for production of the same amount of heat as with natural gas, twice as much biomass should be burnt.

Solid, liquid or gaseous fuel produced from biomass and used as fuel or as a component of other fuels is called biofuel. Thus, biogas, landfill gas, biodiesel, pellets and briquettes from biomass belong to biofuels.

In the municipal utilities sector, part of waste from municipal landfills, sludge slurry of water treatment systems, wood waste and processing products of annual and perennial grass energy crops (energy willow, sorghum, silver grass, switch grass, etc.), agricultural waste (straw), arillus, sunflower processing products, grain and other agricultural crops, livestock and poultry waste can be used as a biofuel and biomass.

High requirements to reliability and continuity of the district heating systems cause the need for designing the municipal biomass boiler houses along with heat generating units on conventional fossil fuels (primarily, natural gas). One can even state that today a new concept for use of natural gas in combination with renewable energy sources (including biomass) is being formed.

In accordance with the above principles and due to higher level of technology and automation opportunities, gas-fired boilers should be used for a dynamic mode, for example, to cover the peak loads, while biomass-fired boilers – mainly for the basic mode.

Burning of biomass requires special design of the boilers. Basic requirements for the boilers and boiler houses on biofuel relate to thermal capacity of the bio-boilers; the need to equip the boiler house with a reliable equipment for storage and supply of various moisture biomass, with fire extinguishing system and to prepare fuel for burning; availability of high-performance boiler systems for gas emission purification from ash and disperse particles up to concentrations envisaged by the project’s environmental impact assessment; possibility of periodic (preferably automated) cleaning of the bio-boiler heating surface from ash; ensuring completeness of combustion; providing a set of fire safety measures in the boiler house and warehouse for biofuels, etc. An important requirement is also the possibility of unobstructed connection of bio-boiler houses to the existing municipal heating system, because due to construction of the new bio-boiler houses there is a need to transfer to them part of load from the boiler houses on conventional fuels.

Reconstruction of the existing boiler houses on conventional fuels and installation in them of bio-boilers is the most favorable option for arrangement of bio-boiler houses.

Use of biomass in the communal energy sector can be implemented not only through direct burning in boilers. Other use of biomass is possible, including: obtaining biogas as a product of biomass fermentation, followed by use of biogas as a fuel; collection, purification and burning in the landfill gas boiler houses, where gas is received in the landfills of domestic or other waste; gasification of solid biomass to obtain gas-generator gas, followed by its use in cogeneration plants to produce electricity and heat.

The main motivation for introduction of heat generating facilities on biomass is independence from imported energy products ensuring energy independence of the country as an important part of its political and economic independence.