Developments in Biomass energy

Developments over the last couple of decades, however, would seem to signal that the wheel is almost coming full circle with the increasing use of biomass being seen as imperative and in the larger interests of mankind. The driving forces behind such a move are briefly recounted and the recent technological developments particularly in the field of biomass conversion are evaluated.
There have been two major developments in the biomass field, the first of which is the rapidly growing emphasis on commercialization. This is evident not only in North America, where much of the pioneering work was carried out, but also in Europe where recent years have seen a surge of interest in biomass based renewable energy, encouraged by international concerns over global warming and regional concerns over agricultural policy. The second development is the rapid changes in funding patterns that have occurred in North America and Europe over the last few years. The Bio-energy Agreement involving 14 countries set up under the aegis of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is one such international effort in this direction.Rapid developments are taking place in most of the advanced countries. Many areas of the United States have to comply with ozone and carbon monoxide controls under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990(CAAA’90) and this called for concentrated efforts in thermochemical conversion of biomass which is well suited to the production of fuel matching with the CAAA’90 requirements.In Japan the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(MAFF) and Ministry of International Trade and Industry(MITI) are promoting thermochemical processing of biomass and organic wastes under the national projects named as “Star Dust 80” and “Aqua Renaissance ‘90”.The Biomass Research and Development Activities of the Commission of the European Communities (EC) has special reference to thermochemical conversion technologies named as ‘LEBEN’ (Less favoured area of Europe-Bio-energy programme). Similarly, Finland’s National Research Programme on fuel conversion named as “JALO” and Canadian programme concentrate on biomass-derived fuels.In India Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, presently MNRE concentrates on biomass based projects called “Green Power” with particular reference to co-generation in sugar mills.