Bioresource technology uses the laws of biology to adapt natural substances for sustainable solutions – from anaerobic digestion and composting for solid waste disposal, to biofuel production to help us cut down on our fossil fuel usage.
Most bioresources are raw plants, animals killed for meat, mushrooms and algae; processed materials are pulping sections of trees, as well as farm scraps.
Biogas
Biogas – the plentiful, clean, cheap energy produced by digesting organic matter through anaerobic digestion to create electricity, heat and transport fuels – is abundant, renewable, clean and cost effective. It can also be burned as spark ignition engine fuel, for example, in diesel or gas engines or as an alternative to compressed natural gas (CNG) engines, for example, in turbines, microturbines and Stirling engines.
Dairies and farms can save on operating expenses with biogas to use the manure from their own livestock for power generation and heat using single point insertion thermal mass flow meters. They’re becoming a trend in rural India for power generation as opposed to firewood. With single point of installation thermal mass flow meters that can manage moisture in the system and very little drop in pressure they are perfect for observing biogas flows, consistently with very little loss in pressure. Also different from other competitors that only give theoretical readings based on temperature.
Biofuels
Biofuels are a form of energy produced from renewable organic material, that will renew itself over time and provide a substitute for energy and reduce GHG emissions. Use them properly, and they could be a cheap alternative to petrol or diesel fuel.
Biofuels include ethanol and biodiesel, two of the most common types made from plant sugars, starches or biomass fuels such as animal fats or vegetable oils. And even some biofuels are produced by algae or microbes.
Bioresource technologist to develop and validate products. They might even work in factories. Plant managers manage day-to-day activities like development of project, budget, standard operating procedures of the plant, retaining documents related to product processing. These people might also be charged with the upkeep of equipment or production shifts to achieve quality and efficiency targets.
Bioreactors
The bioreactor is used for upstream bioprocessing, whether it’s pharmaceutical production or microbe cultivation for biogas or biomass. By establishing optimal growth conditions and product integrity, they’re an essential part of downstream bioprocessing design.
Biological Bioreactors mainly pump oxygen into culture medium and let microbes or cell cultures consume the oxygen. This is done with a constant stirring, decreasing gas bubbles and giving cells more oxygen.
Fertilisation of culture media ensures the even distribution of nutrients within a bioreactor and therefore analysis must be done prior to and during bioreactor construction to establish levels of key elements such as nitrogen and phosphorous; amendments can be made while it is being built, or even altered by injecting liquid solutions into operation.
Biofiltration
Biofiltration also has a high efficiency to reduce the odours from the treatment plants and composting plants. It uses a filter paper enriched with microbes capable of reducing organic matter; like compost, tree bark, peat moss, heath grass or coconut paper as a biofiltration substrate paper.
It is possible to engineer biofilters to be self-sufficient (using gravitational and differential pressure techniques to function autonomously) which could make the technology viable for smaller-scale deployments and use less energy than existing technologies.
It is because a biofilter has to move pollutants evenly to perform its job, or else its life isn’t evenly distributed in its chamber. But temperature can influence biofilter activity too – in experiments such as Tetrazolium Reduction Experiments, biological activity grew at higher temperatures due to increased bacterial biomass or better resistance to acidification and dehydration.