Role of Biomass for Sustainable Energy Solution in India

Before the mining of fossil fuels, biomass was the main source of energy for heating and cooking including hot fuel gas production. With rapid industrialization and use of fossil fuels with high calorific values, use of biomass decreased rapidly. However, in the present context of both climate change and energy security, importance of biomass is regaining as a sustainable energy solution. Life cycle of CO2 emission during the secondary energy production from biomass is lesser than that of the fossil fuels. It is even negative, say for bioenergy with carbon capture. Biomass with good calorific value is abundantly available in countries with rapidly increasing energy demands like India, China, Brazil. Utilization of biomass may increase energy access in rural areas and long-term energy security in India. However, proper selection of biomass, their logistics, and conversion pathways will play an important role. Sustainability of the biomass-based energy system should be assessed for its future feasibility. In this chapter, role of biomass for sustainable energy is assessed specifically for India. Present challenges of energy generation are reviewed. Availability of different types of biomass and logistics are explored. Then, various possible conversion technologies for the conversion of biomass for fuels, electricity are discussed. Possible energy system design for biomass inputs including direct firing, co-firing, gasification and polygeneration are discussed in this chapter. Sustainability assessment of these energy systems is discussed in this chapter. Finally, challenges and prospects related to biomass-based distributed energy solution are presented.