Biomass Driven Polygeneration Systems: a Review of Recent Progress and Future Prospects

Abstract

Biomass is the most widely used renewable energy source which is highly appreciated due to its high availability and non-intermittent nature. Considering problems such as reduction of fossil fuels, global warming, and emission of greenhouse gases, lack of attention to the existing situation may cause irreversible damage to the future of the planet. In addition to using renewable energy sources, improving the efficiency of systems will also be helpful. Polygeneration systems play an important role in increasing efficiency and reducing pollution. So, the use of biomass in polygeneration systems seems to be a great approach for sustainable development. Recent studies on biomass-based polygeneration systems have focused on how to use biomass and integrate diverse subsystems to achieve the best performance from energy and exergy viewpoints. The present paper reviews biomass-based systems, and the parameters affecting the performance of these systems. The literature review shows that the high exergy destruction rate in the gasifiers is the most frequent problem among recent articles. In addition, despite the advantages of anaerobic digestion process, the number of studies conducted on the use of this method for biomass conversion is small. In the end, results, limitations, and future outlooks of these systems are discussed.