Calculation of chemical exergy values of biomass resources

In the world, greenhouse gas emissions resulting from energy consumption are increasing rapidly. Renewable energy systems have a reducing effect on greenhouse gas emissions originating from the energy sector. Therefore, renewable energy sources seem to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development. Among these renewable energy sources, biomass can play a role as an energy source to replace fossil fuels in reducing greenhouse gasses. The increase in problems related to energy resources has increased the importance of defining and understanding the conversion processes of these resources. Exergy emerges as an extremely important concept in order to better understand these conversion processes. The exergy function was originally developed in engineering fields. However, exergy can be considered as the most useful function for analyzing energy conversion systems today. Exergy has been successfully applied to environmental impact assessment, ecological cost assessment, natural resource assessment and ecological modelling. In this thesis, biomass resources are divided into five basic parts and chemical exergy values are calculated using the equations given in the literature. The aim is to identify desirable properties that could serve as the basis for decision-making for future biofuel options. Calculations have shown that the chemical composition of biomass sources strongly influences the chemical exergy values. High oxygen ratios compared to carbon or hydrogen generally reduce the chemical exergy of these biomass samples. In this study, formulas have also been developed to calculate chemical exergy of biomass resources from elemental analysis values.