Development of Fuel Briquettes and Pellets by Biomass Densification Technology for Energy Application Can Save Sri Lanka’s Trees

Behind coal and oil, biomass is the third largest energy resource in the world. The least expensive biomass resources are the waste product from wood or agro processing operations such as saw milling residues, coconut residues, paddy residues, sugar cane residue, and maize residues. Many of the developing countries produce huge quantities of agro residues. Understanding the technology behind the densification and adapting to suitable technology would provide a better market for it in Sri Lanka. Densification of biomass is a solution for this issue. Densification (baling, briquetting or pelleting) is used to improve characteristics of materials (especially low density biomass) for productive transport and improved fuel characteristics.Densified biomass is acquiring increasing importance because of the growing domestic and industrial application for heating, combined heat and power and electricity generation in many countries. Various studies have looked in considerable details at biomass densification techniques and cost of production. Through briquettes and pellet are produced in Sri Lanka by different manufacturers at the moment, any significant study has not been conducted in the context of Sri Lanka.This paper highlights the problems associated with the dependency on wood as the main source of fuel for household and industries in rural and urban areas. It is also discusses the measures to promote the production, marketing and use of briquettes from loose biomass materials as alternative energy, as well as their advantages. It then concludes that to control deforestation for the purpose of fuel wood collection and their negative impacts on health, climate and ecology: affordable and environmentally friendly fuel sources for homes and local industries are vital.Keywords: Agro residues, Saw milling residues, Briquettes, Technolog

Indicators for Assessing Social Sustainability of Bioenergy Systems A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

There are pressing reasons for developing a better understanding group of indicators to assesssocial, economic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Therefore animportant current research need is to develop a group of indicators for acceptable socialsustainability. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainabilityattributes of bioenergy options. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review theindicators that assess the social sustainability of bioenergy systems. A comprehensiveliterature review and a desk study of 20 key research papers written on bioenergy areanalysed in this research study. This research identified a selection of indicators influencingsustainability criteria for bioenergy under social sustainability. 16 social indicators areidentified from the literature review for social well-being, labour rights, water use right, landuse right and land use change, social acceptability, resource conservation and energy security.16 indicators identified under seven categories from literature review will be used to identifycritical indicators affecting the sustainability criteria for bioenergy during the next phase ofthe study. These critical indicators are hypothesized to be practical toolset for capturing keysocial effects of bioenergy across a range of bioenergy system, including different pathways,locations, and management practices. To evaluate the hypothesis that the toolset meet thisgoal, and also to help measure variability and establish appropriate targets, the toolset shouldbe field tested in systems spanning a wide variety of conditions. If the hypothesis isconfirmed, the toolset can be implemented more broadly, modified as necessary for particularsituation

Requirements for the development of a standard and certification system for sustainable fuel wood trade in Sri Lanka

A standard and certification system for sustainable fuel wood trade suitable for local context is presented. The situation analysis of fuel wood trade in Sri Lanka emphasize on the need for the development of such standard and certification system as the present supply chain system is not sustainable at large and there is an increasing demand particularly in the industrial thermal energy application due to fuel switching and an emerging demand as a source of electricity generation. Development of standard and certification system for sustainable biomass and biofuel including fuel wood has been undertaken by several developed countries such as Netherland, United Kingdom and Germany and international organization such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Energy Agency Bio-energy task 40 and Global bio-energy partnership. Usually these systems comprises of set of principles, criteria and indicators covering sustainability aspect, which are dependent on country to country and therefore need to adopt to the local context with appropriate changes. The information collected through literature survey and consultation of foreign experts in the field was used to identify 8 principles that are considered to be relevant to local context. In order to establish locally relevant and acceptable standard and certification system for sustainable fuel wood, key stake holders who are involved in Sri Lankan biomass industry were consulted. The output of the consultation process is based on the principle of consensus distillation of successful thinking and expert judgment. Accordingly, 5 principles namely legal and regularity compliance, environment values and impact, benefit to the community, group support and chain of custody (traceability) from the standing-tree to the farm-gate have been established as those relevant to Sri Lanka. Further 11 criteria and 42 indicators were identified under the five principles, covering social, economic and environmental aspects. Further a set of verifiers for each indicator is proposed. The validation of the proposed standard and certification system for sustainable fuel wood trade was done through field testing in a Community Based Organization iii (CBO) covering home garden and small plantation. In order to facilitate the enforcement of the certification system, a cell matrix was designed which could identify the applicability or non-applicability of indicators on supply chain. Further comprehensive procedure manual was developed for the conformity assessment of the fuel wood certification system. The proposed certification system comprises of 8 steps namely pre-assessment, fuel wood producer‘s preparation, document review, on-site evaluation, reporting, certification, surveillance and re-certification. The last two steps reflect the continuity and reassurance of the established system. It is concluded that the principles, criteria and indicators identified in the standard and certification system could ensure that fuel wood sector contribute to the economic development while ensuring sustainability. It is recommended to test the proposed indicators via application to a divers set of sample cases (large plantation) will help to evaluate the availability of necessary data, prioritize data and methodological efforts, and generate ideas for improvement

Development of Fuel Briquettes and Pellets by Biomass Densification Technology for Energy Application Can Save Sri Lanka’s Trees

Behind coal and oil, biomass is the third largest energy resource in the world. The least expensive biomass resources are the waste product from wood or agro processing operations such as saw milling residues, coconut residues, paddy residues, sugar cane residue, and maize residues. Many of the developing countries produce huge quantities of agro residues. Understanding the technology behind the densification and adapting to suitable technology would provide a better market for it in Sri Lanka. Densification of biomass is a solution for this issue. Densification (baling, briquetting or pelleting) is used to improve characteristics of materials (especially low density biomass) for productive transport and improved fuel characteristics.Densified biomass is acquiring increasing importance because of the growing domestic and industrial application for heating, combined heat and power and electricity generation in many countries. Various studies have looked in considerable details at biomass densification techniques and cost of production. Through briquettes and pellet are produced in Sri Lanka by different manufacturers at the moment, any significant study has not been conducted in the context of Sri Lanka.This paper highlights the problems associated with the dependency on wood as the main source of fuel for household and industries in rural and urban areas. It is also discusses the measures to promote the production, marketing and use of briquettes from loose biomass materials as alternative energy, as well as their advantages. It then concludes that to control deforestation for the purpose of fuel wood collection and their negative impacts on health, climate and ecology: affordable and environmentally friendly fuel sources for homes and local industries are vital.Keywords: Agro residues, Saw milling residues, Briquettes, Technolog

Engineering structural/electronic properties of layered Selenides : A multi-scale modeling approach

Since the discovery of graphene, a new era of physics called Two Dimensional (2D)Materials has emerged. Group IV and Group III Selenides such as SnSe and InSe arepromising members of the 2D family. Structure of Group IV selenides is unique and highlysensitive to pressure and temperature. To further tweaking their properties by structuralchanges, thorough understanding of how the structure relates to the electronic bands is veryimportant. Based on the results from DFT calculations, I carefully analyzed electronic bandstructures of layered SnSe with various interlayer stacking. The first part of this dissertationdiscussed the possible stacking-dependent indirect-direct transition of bilayer SnSe.By further analysis, these results reveal that the directionality of interlayer interactionsdetermine the critical features of their electronic band structures. Further, it demonstratedthat such changes can be achieved by substitutional chemical doping. Using a multi-scalemodeling approach by combining the result of DFT and Boltzmann Transport Theory, Idiscussed the electron transport properties of co-doped SnSe, a class of thermodynamicallyand dynamically stable structures. The second part discussed on charge transfer across InSe/Gas interface, which showsbi-polar transport properties. This finding is in a good agreement with the recent experimentalobservations. Fundamental understanding of charge transfer in few-layer InSe /gasinterfaces at the atomic level is expected to pave the path for designing gas sensing devices

Electronic Band Engineering in Epitaxial Graphene: First Principles Calculations

In this research work, we have investigated the band engineering of epitaxial graphene using first principles calculations. Epitaxial graphene on SiC (0001) surface is modified by using different methods such as intercalation, doping, passivation and oxidation. The calculations are done using Density functional theory which is implemented in quantum espresso package. In the presence of H intercalation, epitaxial graphene is shown to have p type behavior with monolayer graphene. However this behavior is different for multilayer epitaxial graphene systems, and it depended on the concentration of the H atoms. When epitaxial graphene is intercalated with Ge atoms, the Ge atoms make clusters and these clusters are responsible for the electronic properties of the epitaxial graphene systems. As a result of oxidation of epitaxial SiC surface, the graphene layer is mostly stable on the surface for both silicates and oxynitrides structures. For silicate/SiC configurations, the epitaxial graphene is shown to be less n type. For oxynitrides/ SiC configurations, epitaxial graphene is shown to be neutral. In the presence of oxygen intercalation with silicate/SiC, epitaxial graphene is shown to have p type behavior. These systematic studies of epitaxial graphene will opens up great potential for electronic applications. Additionally the resultant models can be used to guide further studies