Biomass Fired Steam Power Generation System :

  Biomass fuelled steam power system, providing  electricity as 
  well as the process heat, has been  utilised for many decades 
  in  most  countries  of  the  world. Such  systems have found 
  widespread  applications  in  paper  and  pulp,  plywood  and 
  metallurgical  industries. In  such a system,  the  energy in 
  the  biomass  fuel is utilised  through the process of direct 
  combustion  to  generate  steam for driving  steam  engine or 
  turbine. The  efficiency of these devices is around 35%. In a 
  study  on  biomass fire steam power system, results show that 
  for  systems  utilising  biomass  fuels 0 and 60% (wet basis), 
  excess air rates  between 0 and 200%, boiler efficiency 84 to 
  49%,  steam  engine  efficiency  18  to  13%,  overall  plant 
  efficiency 11 to 8.4% and  electricity fuel ratio between 0.7 
  and  0.2 kWh/kg, the  cost per unit  of  electricity  ranging 
  from 24 to 39 paise.