In recent years, the amount of silage conserved as roll bales has increased dramatically, and this system of making silage is now widely practiced in Japan and other countries. Today, the new silage inoculant of LAB and new types of chopped roll baler for silage making of corn and forage paddy rice were developed. The research of unused biomass resources for silage making of crops and food by-products are advanced in Japan.

Further information

Abe, A.,The best use manual of food circulation resource, Science Forum. (2006)

Cai, Y., Silage, Dairy Japan (2004)

McDonald, P. JHenderson, N.;Heron, S.,The Biochemistry of Silage, 2nd ed., Chalcombe Publications (1991)

The land area of Myanmer is 690,00 km2 (1.8 times as large as Japan), and it is the larges country in the continental South-East Asia. Its population is 52 million, and its climate belongs to tropical monsoon except northern region. Thus, its nature, biosystem, and biodiversity is unique and precious. Myanmer also enjoys plentiful resources such as rice, forestry resources, and mineral resources. About 70% of the working population belong to agricultural sector and occupies 60% of GDP, and industrial sector contributes to GDP by only 10%. Politically, after the World War II, the democratic system was achieved for a while, but the National Congress was ceased by the Coup d’etat in 1996, and the nation in under military administration since then. It is politically unclear, and economic problems remains, thus being one of the poorest country in the world. There are no laws enforced related with biomass, but all residue is used because of the lack in material and fuel. Mill residue is used as fuel, and livestock and food waste is used as fertilizer, leaving no residue. In a sense, biomass utilization is well made due to the poverty society.

Two interesting examples in terms of rice husk utilization were found during the onsite inspection. Electricity shortage, incomplete infrastructure, and shortage in fossil fuel resulted in employment of rice-husk steam boiler and steam piston engines (made in Germany, 1925) were driving the rice-cleaners (about 600 places). However, the thermal efficiency of the steam boiler is very low, and consumption of the rice husk is large, the number is decreasing.

Another example is the driving of small-scale rice cleaners by rice-husk gasifier and gas engine, which is spreading recently. All the gasifiers are domestic, and of the down-draft type. The rice husk is supplied from the top, and the ash is removed from the bottom. The other elements are combination of water scrubber, filter, and gas engine, and the product of Myanmar. Second-hand Japanese diesel engines (bus and truck) are modified to gas engines by exchanging injection nozzle with ignition plug. The output of the most gasifiers is 20-50 kW. Typically, 20 kW is produced by rice husk supply of 30 kg/h. About 100 of this type of gasification and power generation system were used in 2000, and it is estimated that 300 were used in 2005. The gasifier-power generation plant produced by the company under the Ministry of Commerce, Myanmar has electric output capacity of 140-160 kW. The system is equipped with a down-draft gasifier, water-cooling jacket at the bottom section of the furnace, and ash removal system. The product gas is washed with a water scrubber and stored in a gas tank before being supplied to the gas engine. The pamphlet says that this system is sold at about 350 kJPY (The prices of commodities is 1/100 of that in Japan). The composition of the product gas is shown in Table 7.3.1.

Table 7.3.1 The composition of the gas produced from rice husk.

Production of the gasifier is conducted in a ironworks with several employees, but standardization of the parts is made, and they have some stocks of the parts. Myanmar still has many regulations, and biomass and other residues are needed to be used due to the lack in commodities and fuels. Bagasse produced from the sugar mills are used for self power generation. Rice husk and charcoals are used for various purposes, and no residues are available. One of the private rice mills strongly desired to improve the rice husk boiler and steam engine to achieve higher efficiencies.

Recently, private rice mills are gradually getting busy due to the policy of liberating the economy, although it is for the limited area. The shortage in electricity and fossil fuels will continue, and it is expected that the small-scale gasifier and gas engine system will be used
more and more for driving rice mill and other devices. Presently, production and introduction of biofuels are not yet made, but Myanmar has a large area and good climate and possesses high potential of producing forest resources and plantation crops. In long term, potential to produce bioethanol and biodiesel is as promissing as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The proper form of biomass utilization differs from case to case depending on the natural, social, and economic conditions, and thus elaborate planning is needed. To collect the latest information for this purpose, collaboration office between universities and other sectors is desirable. This kind of collaborative network among university, academic organization, NPO, and international organization will encourage the utilization of small-scale biomass.

Myanmar is a Buddhist country has a high level of education (the rate of school attendance: 96.56%, the literacy rate: 93.3%). The economic development may be late among ASEAN countries, but for its development foreign universities and academic organizations can be a large help.

Further information

Myanmar Ministry of Information. Myanmar: Building a Modern State(2004)

Myat Thein. Economic development of Myanmar, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapole(2004)

San San Rice Husk Gasifier. San San Cooperative Ltd., No. 279, Shwegondine Road. BahanTownship, Yangon, Myanmar(2005)

The paddy husk gas generating plant. Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading(MAPT). Ministry of Commerce, Yangon Division, Mingalartaungnyunt Township, Yangon(2003)

Makoto Hoki, Hideto Mashimo, “Tonan Ajia shokokuni okeru baiomasu riyono doko”, J. Jpn. Inst. Energy, submitted. (in Japanese)

United Nations, Statistic Division, “Sekai tokei nenkan”, Hara Shobo (2005). (in Japanese)

Shin-ichi Yano, “Ajiani okeru bioennryo seisan riyono tenboto sansokendeno seizo gijutu kaihatsu”, Kankyo Gijutsu, 36(12), 7-12 (2007). (in Japanese)

Usually, the biomethane generation rate of digester is 0.2-0.25 m3/(m3.d). So annual output of a 10 m3 digester is about 600 m3 biomethane. Usually, heat value of 1 m3 biomethanol is equivalent to that of 3.3 kg raw coal. As mentioned in previous, annual consumption of biomethane reached 5 million standard coal equivalent in China. It is obvious that biomethane plays an important role in rural energy supply.

Further information

http://www. cogeneration. net/BioMethanation. htm

Wang Haibo, Yang Zhanjiang, Geng Yeqiang. Analysis on the influence factors of rural household biogas production in China. Renewable Energy Resources, Vol. 25 No.5 Oct. 2007: 106-109 http://www. biogas. cn/

Gao Yunchao, Kuang Zheshi, etc. Development progress and current situation analysis of the rural household biogas in China, Guangdong Agricultural Sciences, 2006. 1: 22-27 Huang Fenglian, Zheng Xiaohong, etc. Actions and modes of household biogas for new rural area construction in China. Guangdong Agricultural Sciences, 2007. 8: 114-116

2.1 Classification of biomass

2.1.1 Definition of biomass

As stated in Chapter 1.1, “What Is Biomass?,” the word “biomass” consists of “bio” + “mass”, and originally used in the field of ecology simply referring to amount of animal and plant. After the oil shocks, the meaning of the word was widened beyond ecological field and came to include the meaning “biological resources as energy sources”, since it was vigorously proposed that alternative (new) energy sources should be promoted. There is still no strict definition of biomass, and the definition differs from one field to another. From the perspective of energy resources, a common definition is “a general term for animal and plant resources and the wastes arising from them, which have accumulated in a certain amount (excluding fossil resources)”. Accordingly, biomass encompasses a wide variety including not only agricultural crops, timber, marine plants, and other conventional agriculture, forestry, and fisheries resources, but also pulp sludge, black liquor, alcohol fermentation stillage, and other organic industrial waste, municipal waste such as kitchen garbage and paper waste, and sewage sludge. Because some countries do not classify municipal waste as biomass, care is needed in the use of statistical data.

Actual standing stock of E. crassipes and duckweeds has not been estimated yet. Since E. crassipesis actively propagating due to acceleration of eutrophication in various places of low latitudes particularly serious in Africa where large rivers are dammed by the plant, attractive biomass utilization is urgently required.

Standing stock of biomass of natural sea grass bed is 0.1-0.5 kgDW/m2 on average reaching to 2 kgDW/m2 in a dense community. Sea grass bed is decreasing due to environmental changes and land reclamation in the world, and then artificial maintenance and recovery techniques are under challenged. Assuming 0.3 kgDW/m2 of average density and 90% of water content of eel grass, it is expected more than a few 10 Mtons of eel grass biomass in the world.

According to the estimates based upon natural seaweed resources by Jensen (1978, after Indergaard, 1982), demand of alginic acid is 50,000 tons per year which requires 1.30 MtonsFW of seaweed. Yearly demands of carrageenan, agar, “nori, “wakame and kelp are 30,000, 20,000, 35,000, 30,000, 250,000 tons, respectively, and required seaweeds for respective those are 0.40, 0.50, 0.40, 0.20 and 2.00 MtonsFW. These are 1.1-3.0 times compared to the requirements made in the late 1970s. In addition, there are several M tonsFW to several 10 M tonsFW of seaweeds requested for seaweed meal, chemical industry, energy uses and high purity chemical industries, respectively. In order to meet with these large requirements of seaweed, a large increase of seaweed production is requested essentially in coastal areas as well as open seas in the future.

Further information

Hartog, C. den. Seagrasses of the world. North Holland, Amserdam. pp.275 (1970)

Indergaard, M. The aquatic resource. In Biomass utilization (ed. W. A. Cote) Plenum Press, New York, pp.137-168 (1982)

Mann, K. H. Ecology of coastal waters: a systems approach. Univ. Calif. Press, pp.322. (1982)

Roel, O. A.; Laurence, S.; Farmer, M. W.; Hemelryck, L. Van. The utilization of cold, nutrient-rich deep ocean water for energy and mariculture. Ocean Mangement, 5,199-210 (1979).

Slesser, M. and C. Lewis. Biological energy resources. E. & F. N. Spon Ltd., London (1979)

There are 16 factories that manufacture particleboard in Japan (April, 2006). In October, 2006, total domestic production was 1,234,000 m3 and imported particleboard production was

391,0 m3. Of this total (1,625,000 m3), 60% was used for furniture and 37% was used for construction. To meet the goals of Japanese laws for recycling 60 % dismantled construction wood, 61% of raw materials for wood composite panel manufacturing was from dismantled waste in 2005.

3.3.2 Particleboard Manufacture

The process of particleboard manufacture is shown in Fig. 3.3.1. The first stage of the process is manufacturing raw particles from the mixture of waste wood, which is described as “particle formation process.” Dismantled construction wood and industrial waste wood are processed on different lines in the particle formation process. Several processes are performed for reducing bulk wood to chip size and eliminating foreign materials. Raw materials are sent to a shear crushing machine for initial size reduction, metal is removed by magnets, and the material is then further reduced in a hammer crusher. Material is screened and sorted by airflow, eliminating sand and concrete. The remaining raw material is sent through a search-coil magnetometer, which eliminates non-metal foreign materials. The second stage of the process is to manufacture board from the raw particles created by the first process. To obtain uniformly thick particles, a ring flaker is used for particle size reduction. the particles are then dried and screened. Energy for the drying kiln is often supplied by burning dust produced in the plant. The particles are classified by size prior to blending them with adhesive. Separate surface and core blenders are used for three-layered particleboards. The blended furnish is moved to the three mat formers, hot-pressed, cured, and sanded. Nondestructive testing is sometimes performed to eliminate products that include defects, such as blisters. After sanding, products are inspected for shipping.

4.1.3 General scope

In ethanol fermentation saccharine materials like glucose, fructose, and sucrose are metabolized by yeast strains through glycolysis pathway (Embden-Meyerhof Pathway) to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide in anaerobic condition (Eq. (5.2.1)). In this reaction two molecules of ATP are generated from one molecule of glucose and are used as energy for growth of yeast cells. Mankind has long known and utilized ethanol fermentation for brewery of alcohol drinks, manufacture of fermented food, bakery and so on for several thousands years. In the medieval period, people came to know how to make distilled liquor. Ethanol became available in the field of various chemical industries, beverage and food industry, medical use, as well as fuel, since great progress was achieved with technologies of fermentation and distillation in 19-20th century. Large amount of fuel ethanol has been produced from corn in the USA and from sugar cane in Brazil for the purpose to alternate fossil fuel and to prevent global warming, particularly after two times of oil crisis in 1970’s. Extensive research and development are undergoing in the world on technologies for ethanol production from various cellulosic materials which are available in large amount and do not compete with food utilization.

C6H12O6 ^ 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 (5.2.1)

100 g 51.14 g 48.86 g

Ethanol fermentation is a biological reaction at room temperatures and under atmospheric pressure. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast which is widely used for industrial and fuel ethanol production, and has excellent ethanol fermenting ability and ethanol tolerance. Yeast strains produce 51.14 g of ethanol from 100 g of glucose according to Eq. (5.2.1). In this reaction nearly 50% weight of glucose is lost as carbon dioxide, but about 91% of energy contained in glucose (2.872 MJ/mol) is retained in ethanol. Therefore, ethanol fermentation is an excellent biological process to convert biomass to liquid fuel ethanol. Yeast cells were first isolated from beer as pure cultures in 1883 in Denmark and a great deal of work were carried out on their metabolic pathway of ethanol fermentation. S. cerevisiae can ferment many sugars including glucose, fructose, galactose, mannose, sucrose, maltose, except pentoses like xylose and arabinose. Pichia stipitis and Pachysolen tannophilus are known as yeasts capable of fermenting pentoses, but they are not so tolerant to ethanol as S. cerevisiae is. Strain improvement research to construct strains of S. cerevisiae having pentose fermentability is undergoing in many laboratories.

Next to S. cerevisiae, Zymomomas mobilis is excellent bacterium to ferment a limited range of sugars of glucose, fructose and sucrose to ethanol. Fermentation yield and fermentation rate of Z. mobilis are supposed to be better than those of yeast S. cerevisiae, but Z. mobilis is not so tolerant to ethanol as S. cerevisiae is. Zymobacterpalmae, isolated in 1980’s in Japan, has ethanol fermenting ability similar to that of Z. mobilisand its genome base sequence has been determined recently. Strain improvement of Z. mobilis and Z. palmae regarding pentose and mannose fermentation has been successfully made in Japan. Pentoses are contained at relatively high concentration in hard woods and herbaceous plants, and mannose is a characteristic component of soft woods.

DNA recombinant strains of Escherichia coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum having ethanol fermenting ability have been constructed through biotechnology. Other ethanol fermenting bacteria like hetero-lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus), cellulose degrading Clostridium bateria, and anaerobic thermophilic bacteria Themoanaerobacterhave been known so far, but they can produce ethanol at relatively low concentration and with byproducts like organic acids. Therefore, these bacteria are considered difficult for the industrial use at least for the present.

6.3.1 CO2 Emission of biomass

On energy evaluation of biomass in the preceding paragraph, light oil, natural gas and electricity are consumed for planting stage; electricity for crushing stage; heavy oil for drying stage. And light oil, gasoline (light oil equivalency), electricity are consumed for coal mining. Evaluating CO2 emission to consume energy such as light oil, heavy oil, gasoline and natural gas, it is necessary to consider CO2 emission from combustion and production processes of
them. The power resources composition should be considered to evaluate CO2 emission of electricity consumption. It was assumed that CO2 emission according to production process of these energy was equal to those of Japan, and the emission factors were obtained from LCA results (Table 6.3.1) (Tahara 1997, Tahara 1998).

CO2 emissions of biomass and coal are obtained by multiplying CO2 emission factor, to energy consumption about biomass production (Fig. 6.2.1). The CO2 emission of biomass production is 0.0130 kg-CO2/MJ-biomass. The CO2 emissions of open-pit and underground coal mining are 0.00053 kg-CO2/MJ — coal, 0.00039 kg-CO2/MJ — coal respectively and both of them become 0.091 kg-CO2/MJ-coal with consideration burning(combustion) stage. It was assumed that the forest would absorb the CO2 emission (CO2 @) from biomass combustion as shown in Fig. 6.2.2.

The abundant biomass resources coming mainly from its palm oil, wood and agro-industries are used mainly to produce steam for processing activities and also for generating electricity. Biomass fuels contribute to about 16 percent of the energy consumption in the country, out of which 51 percent comes from palm oil biomass waste and 27 percent wood waste. Other biomass energy contributors are from plant cultivations, animal and urban wastes. There are currently about 400 palm oil mills in operation, which self generates electricity from oil palm wastes not only for their internal consumption but also for surrounding remote areas. Studies also found that 75.5 percent of the potential biomass that can be harnessed in Malaysia is unutilized and wasted.

7.8.1 Oil palm residues

The oil palm industry generates residues during the harvesting, replanting and milling processes. The residue that comes from the milling processes are fruit fibers, shell and empty fruit bunches (EFB). Other residues including trunks and fronds are available at the plantation area. Currently shells and fibres are used as boiler fuel to generate steam and electricity for the mill’s consumption. The EFB is return back to the plantation for mulching. This is only practiced in bigger plantations. For old palm oil mills, the EFB is burned in the incinerator to produce fertilizer. However, there are still palm oil mills disposing the EFB through landfill method particularly the mills without enough plantations or estates.

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the wastewater discharged from the sterilization process, crude oil clarification process and cracked mixture separation process. The amount of POME generated depends on the milling operation. For a palm oil mill with good housekeeping, it is estimated that 2.5 tonnes of POME are generated from every tonne of crude palm oil produced. The average value for Malaysian palm oil mill is 3.5 tonnes for every tonne of crude palm oil produced. The POME contains high chemical and biological oxygen demand, total solids and require a treatment system before it can be discharged to the environment. Biogas is generated from the biological treatment of POME. The composition is mainly methane (60-70%) and carbon dioxide (30-40%). The calorific value is between 4740-6560 kcal per Nm3 and the electricity generation is 1.8 kWh/cm3 of biogas. Some plantations practice zero waste management system.

At the Biomass Asia Forum, which was organized mainly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery, and Forestry, Japan, Tokyo Declaration on Asian Biomass was adopted. This declaration arranged the things to be considered and the direction of activities for the utilization of biomass in Asian countries based on the discussion in the forum. The declaration is as following.

Tokyo Declaration on Asian Biomass

Considering the increasing expectations held for biomass, the Biomass Asia Forum adopts the following declaration for the effective utilization of Asian biomass resources.

1. The renewability and carbon neutrality of biomass resources should be recognized and the utilization of biomass resources promoted.

2. When using biomass resources, the importance of sustainability should be emphasized and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions properly evaluated.

3. The contribution of biomass resources to the activation of Asian industry and regional economies should be recognized and appropriate measures taken to make the most of these economic effects.

4. When using biomass resources, the possibility of creating a recycling society should be discussed and appropriate measures for realizing such a society promoted.

5. The effectiveness of the development and introduction of appropriate technologies in the

utilization of biomass resources should be recodnized and the development of related technologies through appropriate support and subsidization promoted.

6. An association to promote biomass resource utilization, composed of members from Asian countries, should be organized and should conduct self-supporting activities.

7. Utilization of biomass resources should contribute to the improvement of conditions in all countries; thus biomass utilization that contributes to the solution of poverty, prevention of environmental damage, suppression of disease, and realization of a better quality of life should be promoted and policies for realizing such utilization pursued.