Compostable Wastes Generated from Biomass

Biomass in general can be defined as the organic matters which are produced by the plants of both the terrestrial and aquatic means. Due to the chemical reaction by the bioactive microorganisms, the huge mass of the wastes generated in the environment has been processed into biomass wastes. Being the source of power biomass plays a vital role in the field of the energy sector. The whole world is looking for an alternative way of producing energy from sources that are available as raw materials to generate different forms of energy. According to a recent study, fossil fuels will get depleted in a few decades due to overconsumption, and also a lot of practical difficulties are there in the case of nuclear-based energy sources. All over the world millions and trillion tons of waste are generated per day from various fields including agricultural waste, food waste, industrial waste, wastes produced from forests, animal waste, poultry droppings, sewage waste, etc. All these wastes can be utilized into useful energy using different conversion technologies including fermentation, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, combustion, transesterification, gasification, thermochemical conversion, etc. In this chapter, the waste generated from biomass and the process involved in the conversion of biomass into useful energy are depicted. Also, the by-products generated from biomass, like biodiesel, biogas, and other products and their role as a biofuel are discussed.