Thermochemical technology, biomass biochemical conversion

Biochemical technologies for conversion of biomass are much more common than thermochemical technologies. There has been a great deal of discussion in the literature about whether biochemical or thermochemical technologies would be more appropriate for the conversion of biomass into fuels. Criticism of biochemical methods typically... 

Industrialbiobased products have enormous potential in the chemical and material industries. The diversity of biomass feedstocks (sugars, oils, protein, lignocellulosics), combined with the numerous biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies, can provide a wealth of products that can be used in many applications. Targeted markets include the polymer, lubricant, solvent, adhesive, herbicide, and pharmaceutical markets. Industrial bioproducts have already penetrated some of these markets, but improved technologies promise new products that can compete with fossil-based products in both cost and performance. 

There are a number of technologies available to convert the biomass into different energy prodnets and these technologies can be classified into thermochemical processes (combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis) and biochemical processes (digestion, fermentation, and enzyme). As the biochemical processes are normally operated in solutions, me of the biomass is not a control parameter. Therefore, this chapter will focus on the thermochemical processes where the biomass me has direct inflnence on the conversion efficiency and the energy product quality. 

The second-generation biofuels (or advanced biofuels) are derived from lignocellu-losic biomass, nonfood crop feedstocks, agricultural and forest residues, and industrial wastes. They are mainly produced through the utilization of physical, thermochemical, and biochemical technologies, usually after a pretreatment stage of the biomass feedstock (Liew et al., 2014). The pretreatment step is a very important step to prepare the biomass properties (e.g., size, moisture, density, etc.) in order to facilitate the conversion processes (Agbor et al., 2011). 

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