Primer on Bioproducts - BIOCAP Canada

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Does Canada Have a“Green Advantage”?Canada is home to seven per centof the world’s land mass and 10per cent of its forests. Most of thecountry’s biomass production takesplace in large forests.The BIOCAP Canada Foundationestimates that, if gathering andprocessing this widely distributedenergy resource were economicallyfeasible, there may be enoughunused biomass from Canada’sforestry and farming operationsalone (crop residues, unused treebranches, mill waste, etc.) to providealmost 27 per cent of the country’scurrent energy needs. The universitybasedresearch organization alsocalculates that a 25 per centincrease in today’s tree and cropproduction could meet a further 15per cent of the energy demand nowbeing filled by fossil fuels.These numbers reflect the totalbiomass potential of Canada’s vastforests and farmlands. They do nottake into account the difficultiesassociated with collecting thismaterial, the shortcomings of thetechnology, the economics ofprocessing it, the related pollutionproblems, and other environmentaland economic issues associatedwith the use of biomass as a sourceof energy.Biomass for Heat and PowerBurning biomass is called “direct combustion.” Woodstoves andfireplaces use direct combustion to heat homes. Traditional stovesand fireplaces may be the oldest and perhaps crudest means forconverting biomass to heat, but new technologies have mademany wood and biomass burning stoves very efficient. Fuel forthese stoves includes everything from wood and wood chips tobiomass particles, pellets and fire logs made from coffee grinds.While the amount of trace gases (including CO 2) and particlesemitted from woodstoves varies widely among different models,many Canadians use them as an alternative to oil and gasfurnaces for space heating, or to fossil fuel-fired plants as a sourceof electricity.Biomass direct combustion is also used to generate steam andelectricity (or, more simply put, heat and power). For thispurpose, dried organic material is burned to boil water, and theresulting steam provides process heat that forces a turbine to spinand generate electricity. In the United States, direct biomasscombustion currently generates more than 7,500 megawatts ofelectricity — enough to power several million households.In Canada, direct combustion is used to generate heat andelectricity in communities across the country. For example, inCharlottetown, Prince Edward Island, a wood-fired districtheating system has been supplying heat to 15 buildings since1986, including provincial government buildings, city hall, twochurches, three hotels and a fire hall.Hydro-Québec gets 28 megawatts of power from the wood-firedChapais Generating Station in Chapais, Quebec. The WilliamsLake power plant in Williams Lake, British Columbia, burnswood waste from forestry operations in the area to fuel its 60megawatt operation. In the Town of Ajax, a biomass-powereddistrict energy system provides energy to the community centre,26CHAPTER 3 — BIOFUELS AND BIOENERGY
Ajax-Pickering Hospital, the Ajax WorksDepartment and more than a dozen industrialcustomers.Most biomass can generate energy from directcombustion, but some biomass sources areavoided because they produce large amountsof ash that can foul boilers, reduce efficiencyand increase costs. Similarly, wet biomass canresult in a large amount of energy being wastedin boiling off the moisture before the biomasscan be burned.Biomass can also be converted into clean andefficient fuels that can be indirectly used todrive generators, fuel cells, engines and otherenergy conversion devices, and to producepower. Pyrolysis and advanced gasificationtechnologies transform organic materials intocrude oil (bio-oil) and “synthesis gas” (syngas),respectively. Thermal depolymerizationproduces true hydrocarbon oil comparable tohigh-quality heating oil. These technologiesgenerally have greater conversion efficiencyand use a wider variety of biomass thancombustion technologies.Pyrolysis converts biomass to fuel by heating itin an oxygen-free tank. The gas produced isthen quickly cooled to a liquid and a solidcharcoal. The liquid can be burned for energyor used to produce chemicals that can replacepetrochemicals. Renewable fuels produced bypyrolysis can be more easily stored,transported and burned than can solidbiomass.Source:ce: Corel CorporationGasification is a similar process to pyrolysis,but introduces oxygen as the biomass is heated.The result is a cleaner fuel called syngas.Syngas contains carbon monoxide andhydrogen, as well as nitrogen, but it still burnswith fewer emissions than do fossil fuels.Syngas can be used in place of natural gas togenerate electricity, or as a raw material toproduce chemicals (e.g., ammonia) and liquidfuels (e.g., methanol).Co-firing is another method of reducing gasemissions and the environmental impacts offossil fuel-powered generators. Rather thanheating the generator boilers in electricityplants with coal alone, the co-firing processmixes dried biomass into the fuel. Co-firinghelps reduce the amount of coal needed toproduce electricity.PRIMER ON BIOPRODUCTS27
Page 6: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPollution Probe and
Page 10 and 11: The potential of bioproducts is bei
Page 12 and 13: Chapter 1Photo: Corel Corporation6
Page 14 and 15: Pervasive PetroleumFossil fuels are
Page 16 and 17: Bioproducts and theCarbon CycleOne
Page 18 and 19: PyrolysisPyrolysis is a process tha
Page 20 and 21: developing nations involved in the
Page 22 and 23: Some Examples of BioproductsProduct
Page 26 and 27: Canadian Forest ProductsThe Canadia
Page 28 and 29: What Other Nations Are Doing?Accord
Page 34 and 35: Processes for producing electrical
Page 36 and 37: Fuelled by Biodiesel —continuedus
Page 38 and 39: Chapter 4Photo: www.comstock.com/ca
Page 40 and 41: consume less energy and produce les
Page 42 and 43: Enzymes at Work — continuedproces
Page 44 and 45: Industrial EcologySome thinkers, no
Page 48 and 49: Wood Pulping with FungusTraditional
Page 50 and 51: BioremediationSpills and environmen
Page 54 and 55: Faced with this uncertainty and com
Page 56 and 57: Some Benefits ofGenetically Modifie
Page 58 and 59: In some cases, such as pulp bleachi
Page 60 and 61: A Challenge toBiotechnology PolicyS
Page 62 and 63: Becoming an InformedCitizen on Biop
Page 64 and 65: Chapter 7Photo: www.comstock.com/ca
Page 66 and 67: The opportunities for Canadians to
Page 68 and 69: Environment Canada, EnvironmentalTe
Page 70 and 71: White House Executive Order #13134.
Page 72 and 73: Mooney, H. A., and P.G. Risser. 198
Page 74 and 75: Catalysts: Agents (such as enzymes
Page 76: TORONTO OFFICE:625 Church StreetSui

Primer on Bioproducts - BIOCAP Canada

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