Ecological and Biomass Assessment of Vegetation Cover of a University Campus
Jayanta Kumar Patra, Gitishree Das, Sanjeet Kumar, Hrudayanath Thatoi in Ethnopharmacology and Biodiversity of Medicinal Plants, 2019
Biomass is a major source of energy for nearly 50% of world’s population (Karekezi and Kithyoma, 2006) and wood biomass is a major renewable energy source in developing world, representing a significant proportion of rural energy supply (Hashiramoto, 2007). Forest biomass is an important source of food, fodder, and fuel, and its exploitation leads to forest degradation (Rawat and Nautiyal, 1988). As per the records of Forest Survey of India (FSI, 2003), the area under forest was 102.68 m ha in 1880, which has been reduced to 67.83 m ha in 2003. Since 2003, carbon stocks in Indian forests are continuously decreasing. The data reveals that in India, forests are under excessive anthropogenic pressures (Rai and Chakrabarti, 2001). It is an established fact that the tree biomass is a function of tree density, height and basal area at any given location. These parameters contribute to the aboveground biomass which differs with site, habitat, forest succession stage, the composition of the forest, species variability and varying tree density, etc. (Brunig, 1983; Joshi and Ghose, 2014; Whitmore, 1984). Variation in biomass at various sites can be attributed to some internal and external factors, such as the type of forest, site-to-site variations, disturbances, total annual rainfall and geographical location of the forests (Terakunpisut et al., 2007).
What are the solutions?
Théodore H MacDonald in Health, Trade and Human Rights, 2018
Such an action, if carried out now, would run up against local council ordinances. Before anything can happen, the government has to rethink development rules. It also needs to provide coherent advice, if not financial help, to potential developers. Sir Ben Gill, a former president of the National Farmers’ Union, said that government rules devised 50 years ago to control atmospheric pollution need to be modified for biomass to be produced. He went on to say that another critical barrier is popular ignorance about the quantity of what is available, how to source it, the relevant transformation technologies, forms of biomass and about safety issues. There is also widespread ignorance about the flexibility of biomass and how it could be fitted into modern technologies. Straw bales and woodchips, like coal and oil, produce carbon dioxide emissions. But coal and oil draw on a reserve ‘energy bank’ laid down about 300 million years ago. Biomass, on the other hand, withdraws and pays back into the the planet’s ‘current account’ and, in the long term, makes no difference to levels of greenhouse gases causing climate change and global warming.
Saving the human race: environmental sustainability
Théodore H MacDonald, Noël A Kinsella, John A Gibson in The Global Human Right to Health, 2018
In other words, six molecules of water combine with six molecules of carbon dioxide, using energy from the sun, to produce one larger molecule of glucose, and six molecules of oxygen are released into the atmosphere. Thus green plants and also animals have stored a lot of carbon that was once in the atmosphere, and when they die that carbon is eventually released. Therefore biomass energy can be derived from plant or animal material – for example, wood and agricultural produce, human and animal waste. It is important to note that biomass has not been fossilised (unlike oil, coal and gas). Biomass is fresh material that can accumulate again after it has been collected.
Bioprospecting of aqueous phase from pyrolysis of plant waste residues to disrupt MRSA biofilms
Published in Biofouling, 2023
Srividhya Krishnan, Subramaniyasharma Sivaraman, Sowndarya Jothipandiyan, Ponnusami Venkatachalam, Saravanan Ramiah Shanmugam, Nithyanand Paramasivam
Pyrolysis is one such thermochemical conversion process that provides a solution to stubble burning and also helps to sequester carbon in the form of biochar (Corona et al. 2020). During pyrolysis, biomass is subjected to thermal decomposition under an inert atmosphere like nitrogen and the constituent components of biomass are degraded and disintegrated. This yields three different products viz., solid (biochar), liquid (bio-oil and aqueous phase) and gas (syngas and non-condensable gases), respectively (Vuppaladadiyam et al. 2022). Pyrolysis is a promising alternative process for the development of ‘drop-in’ biofuels which has the potential to replace non-renewable fossil fuels (Pešenjanski et al. 2016). The life cycle assessment of pyrolysis of biomass have shown that it is sustainable process for energy generation and has excellent environmental benefits (Patel Amit et al. 2014). The aqueous phase of plant biomass upon pyrolysis is generally considered as a waste and cannot be released into the environment without further treatment. Due to the presence of large number of oxygenated organics along with several micro- and macro-nutrients, its direct release in water bodies would lead to eutrophication and environmental pollution (Leng et al. 2021).
Household use of biomass fuel, especially traditional stove is associated with childhood wheeze and eczema: a cross sectional study of rural communities in Kandy, Sri Lanka
Published in Journal of Asthma, 2023
Olivia Lall, Gayan Bowatte, Samath Dharmaratne, Adrian J. Lowe, Alicia Vakalopoulos, Isabella Ambrose, Pasan Jayasinghe, Duminda Yasaratne, Jane Heyworth, Shyamali C. Dharmage
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4.3 million people die prematurely each year from household air pollution produced by inefficient cookstoves fueled by biomass, coal and kerosene (1). Children are particularly vulnerable to biomass fuel as their lungs and immune system are still developing (2). Evidence suggests that early life exposure to biomass fuel can consequently affect respiratory health outcomes in children, both in the short term and long term (3). As the use of biomass fuel is a modifiable risk factor, decreasing the use of biomass fuels, is likely to decrease the negative health consequences associated with their use. A recent systematic review revealed that exposure to solid fuel is associated with asthma and wheeze in children (4). However, evidence for the link between biomass fuel and allergic disease outcomes in children in LMICs is limited.
Addition of Trichocladium canadense to an anaerobic membrane bioreactor: evaluation of the microbial composition and reactor performance
Published in Biofouling, 2021
Hadi Fakhri, Duygu Nur Arabacı, İlayda Dilara Ünlü, Cigdem Yangin-Gomec, Suleyman Ovez, Sevcan Aydin
A previous study reported a novel pathway using fungi as bio-enhancers to aid methanogenesis in anaerobic digestion of synthetic wastewater (Guo et al. 2021). Therefore, microbial community structure can be shifted to favor enrichment of desired methanogens, as fungi potentially generate the different enzymes required in anaerobic processes. It was also emphasized that several anaerobic digestion processes like the UASB and expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactors with layered anaerobic granule structures allow granular biomass formation by archaeal populations (Calderón et al. 2013). Here, hydrogen- or formate-producing acetogens and hydrogen- or formate-consuming methanogens embrace a central core of acetoclastic methanogens. Furthermore, an outside layer of microorganisms that hydrolyze and acidify complex organic matter is also provided by this granule structure. Such anaerobic reactors comprising a fixed-bed or an expanded-bed phase also provide an excellent environment for biofilm development, especially for the treatment of industrial wastewaters. Microbial investigations revealed that some archaeal populations might exclude each other and might indicate preference for distinct bioreactor systems (e.g. high levels of Methanosarcina frisus was observed in stirred-tank and fixed-film systems whereas it was barely present in UASB reactors, while Methanosaeta spp. were prevalent in UASB reactors) (Calderón et al. 2013).
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