Energetica India Magazine March 2022

Solar Thermal Pyrolysis is the Sustainable Route for Biofuel Production 52 energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 The worldwide population has continuously increased which causes more energy consumption. With a rapid social and eco- nomic growth, demand of energy consumption is continued to increase while slowly exhaustion of fossil fuels. According to report, in 2014 the primary energy demand of oil was as- sessed to be around 13,000 megatons annually throughout the worldwide, indicating a raise of 22% and 54%, compared to 2004 and 1994, respectively. To fulfill the energy demand by using fossil fuels is one of the big challenges in front of scientific community. Therefore there is need to develop a pathway for biofuel production using some renewable, abun- dant available material such as biomass. Conversion of bio- mass into energy rich fuels through pyrolysis process has paid significant attention throughout the worldwide. Biomass potential for energy generation in India The total available land in India is about 328 Mha (million hectares) among this nearly 39 Mha area is covered by mar- ginal land, which is 12% of the whole area. The marginal land is simply defined as the agricultural land which was ini - tially used for sowing and cultivation purpose but presently is not in application due to reduction in productivity. Mostly, marginal land is not recognized for agricultural practices by the reason of high-risk lower production that simultaneous- ly affect on agricultural economy. Therefore, reforming the marginal land for good agricultural production will require more amounts of chemical fertilizer dosages which can raise the economics and also affect on environment. However, many researchers found that marginal land is more capable to produce 230-720 MT of energy crops annually. These ener- gy crops have a potential in between 1-13 EJ annually, which almost cover 11 to 160% energy demand of transport sector. The energy crops have a total bio-fuel potential is in between 3-103 GGE/y, which almost cover 5 to 160% of gasoline de- mand in transport sector. The total availability agriculture and forest residues in India are nearly about 439 and 19 MT, indicating potential to generate energy in 1.8-7.2 EJ annual- ly that fulfills the 21- 84% energy demand in transport sec - tor. In terms of biofuels, the energy crops have a potential to produce 6-37 GGE annually, which may cover 10-56% of gasoline demand. What is biomass pyrolysis? Pyrolysis is a thermochemical conversion process, where biomass is heated in absence of air or with a limited supply of air at a requisite temperature in the range of 400-600oC which yield three different end products like biochar, bio-oil, and syngases. Unlike combustion process, pyrolysis reaction is not exothermic and takes place in absence of air except in some cases where limited supply of air is needed. In py- rolysis, hydrocarbon molecules of biomass are subsequently broken down into smaller ones. There’s a need to develop a pathway for biofuel production using some renewable, abundant available material such as biomass. The conversion of biomass into energy-rich fuels through the pyrolysis process got significant attention worldwide. Dr. Ashish Pawar Research Associate, Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bioenergy, Kapurthala (Punjab) BIOENERGY