Utility of Duckweeds as Source of Biomass Energy: a Review
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Utility of Duckweeds as Source of Biomass Energy: a Review Rashmi Verma 1 & Surindra Suthar 1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract The quest for alternative sources of energy has evoked the interest in exploring potentials of living biological wastes as new energy materials. Duckweeds are produced abundantly as weeds in freshwater surface bodies and can be a source of biomass for bioenergy productions. There are approximately 40 species of this group worldwide belonging to five genera (Spirodela, Lemna, Wolfiella, Wolffia and Landoltia). The structural peculiarities (small plant size, limited life cycle, high duplication rate, etc.) and chemical characteristics (dry weight basis): 17.6–35 % (carbohydrate), 21– 38 % (starch), 16–41.7 % (crude protein), 8.8–15.6 % (crude fibre) and 4.5–9 % (lipid) make duckweed as possible feedstock for biomass-based energy operations. The high contents of valuable fatty acids (palmitic acid and linoleic acid) and starch (3–75 %) in duckweed biomass suggest its utility in biorefinery. Recent lab-scale studies have shown remarkable results in terms of energy yield during the processes like anaerobic digestion, incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, oxidation, etc. Another good quality of duckweeds is its hyperaccumulative properties for a variety of water pollutants. Therefore, this group of weeds has been recommended widely for designing on-site phytoremediation system for community wastewater treatment. Thus, duckweed technology can be adopted as coupled technology to harness two environmental approaches, i.e. wastewater treatment and energy biomass production for sustainable development of the human society.
* Surindra Suthar [email protected] 1
School of Environment and Natural Resources, Doon University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India
Keywords Bioenergy . Biomass energy . Wastewater treatment . Starch . Palmitic acid
Introduction The energy is one of the important factors that drive development process of any country. It provides the stimulus and momentum to socioeconomic development of any developing society [1]. Therefore, the secure and accessible supply of energy is an inevitable need of modern society. The energy consumption pattern grows linearly with economic growth and industrial development [2]. The major proportion of energy demands is fulfilled by non-renewable sources such as natural gas, coal and petroleum derivatives [3]. Globally, the future energy demands will recklessly rise with population growth and increasing living standard of the society [4]. The excessive consumption of fossil fuel tends to diminish the availability of resource for future generations [5]. The fossil fuel-based energy is finite and produces by-products, such as greenhouse gases, that are detrimental to the environment [5–7]. The continued use of fossil fuels will set to face multiple challenges related to depletion of fossil fuel reserves, global warming and other environmental concerns, political and military conflicts and ultimately significant
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