Biomass as an energy source: thermodynamic constraints on the performance of the conversion process

M Baratieri1, P Baggio, L Fiori

  • 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38100 Trento, Italy. marco.baratieri@ing.unitn.it

Bioresource Technology
|February 26, 2008
PubMed

Related Concept Videos

Biofuels01:25

Biofuels

The microbial conversion of organic matter into biofuels holds potential as a renewable energy source. Among biofuel sources, microalgae are recognized as a highly efficient and adaptable feedstock for biodiesel production, owing to their rapid biomass accumulation, elevated lipid productivity, and capacity to proliferate in diverse aquatic systems, including freshwater, marine, and wastewater habitats. Unlike terrestrial crops, microalgae do not compete for land and can achieve significantly...
First Law of Thermodynamics00:37

First Law of Thermodynamics

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. This can be demonstrated within a classic food web where light energy from the sun is harnessed as radiant energy by plants, converted into chemical energy, and stored as complex carbohydrates. The vegetation is then consumed by animals and during the digestion process, the sugars release energy as heat. The sugars also produce chemical energy that either gets used up doing work, stored in...
First Law of Thermodynamics02:16

First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy Conservation
The First Law of Thermodynamics01:13

The First Law of Thermodynamics

The first law of thermodynamics deals with the total amount of energy in the universe. It states that this total amount of energy is constant. In other words, there has always been, and always will be, exactly the same amount of energy in the universe. Energy exists in many different forms. According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy may transfer from place to place or transform into different forms, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The transfers and transformations of energy...
The Carnot Cycle01:30

The Carnot Cycle

Converting work to heat is an irreversible process, and the purpose of a heat engine is to reverse the effect partially. Heat engines aim to increase the efficiency of the reversal, that is, maximize the work retrieved from heat. If the efficiency of a heat engine were 100%, it would imply reversing the process completely without introducing any other effect. Thus, it would violate the second law of thermodynamics.
What could be the theoretical limit to the efficiency of a heat engine? The...
Trophic Efficiency00:46

Trophic Efficiency

Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) is a measure of the total energy transfer from one trophic level to the next. Due to extensive energy loss as metabolic heat, an average of only 10% of the original energy obtained is passed on to the next level. This pattern of energy loss severely limits the possible number of trophic levels in a food chain.