Estimation of Biomass Resource Conversion Factor and Potential Production in Agricultural Sector

BACKGROUND: Currently, national biomass inventory are being established for efficient management of the potential energy sources. Among the various types of biomass, agricultural wastes are considered to take the biggest portion of the total annual biomass generated in Korea, implying its importance. However, the currently estimated amount is not reliable because the old reference data are still used to estimate total annual amount of agricultural wastes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Therefore, to provide reliable estimation data, a correct conversion factor obtained by taking into account the current situation is required. For this, the current study was conducted to provide the conversion factors for each representative 8 crop through a field cultivation study. Also conversion factors for 18 crops were calculated using the average amount of each crop produced during 2004 and 2008, subsequently; total amount of agricultural wastes generated in 2009 was estimated using these conversion factors. The total biomass of rice straw and rice husk generated in 2009 were 6.5 and 1.1 million tons, respectively, which consist 75% of the total agricultural based wastes, while the total biomass of pepper shoots and apple pruning twigs were 1.0 and 0.6 million tons, respectively. Despite the high amount of rice-based biomass, their applicability for bio-energy production is low due to conventional utilization of these materials for animal feeds and beds for animal husbandry. In addition to exact estimation of the total biomass, temporal variations in both generated amount and the type of agricultural biomass materials are also important for efficient utilization; fruit pruning twigs (January to March); barley-, been-, and mustard-related waste materials (April to June); rice-related waste (September to October). CONCLUSION(s): Such information provided in this study can be used to establish a master plan for efficient utilization of the agricultural wastes on purpose of bio-energy production.