Screening and characterization of waste lignocellulosic biomass as a potential substrate for energy recovery

Abstract

The world is facing a severe energy crisis due to rapid industrialization, population explosion, and modern lifestyle. Conventional energy sources are running out of stock and accordingly, an ardent need for the search for alternative feedstock for energy recovery has been the research focus for the past few decades. In context to this energy turmoil, the lignocellulosic biomasses have emerged as an excellent surrogate antecedent for energy procreation in this present scenario of the energy crisis. Among numerous feasible biomass energy recovery methods, the biochemical route and the thermochemical route are the most prevailing. Accordingly, several biomass characteristics require well understanding to access the extent of possible energy recovery. The compositional features assessed (in terms of cellulose, hemicellulose, extractives, and lignin content) as well as the ultimate analysis carried out (in terms of the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen content) as one of the major parameters for evaluating the energy recovery potential and subsequently, a Van Krevelen diagram was obtained to define their energy recovery potential. The calorific value of the three biomass specimens obtained by using an adiabatic bomb calorimeter and subsequently, their oil equivalence was presented. A tariff and budgetary analysis evaluated to define their respective economic incentives and their potential scope to meet the energy crisis scenario. Finally, a scoring matrix analysis conducted parallelly by evaluating the various parameters by adopting the rank correlation method to screen out the best biomass category. The overall scheme of study adopted for screening a particular waste biomass category from three widely available agriculture waste biomass samples (rice husk, corn cob, and nutshell) through multiple criteria and thereby evaluating the most ideal biomass as the surrogate source to meet the ever‐increasing energy demand which are prevalent in the state of Jharkhand, India.