ABSTRACT

Biomass can be converted into a combination of heat, power, and a variety of fuels via thermal conversion processes. Heat and power are the primary products from direct biomass combustion, but they are often coproducts in other thermal processes. Thermal processes can convert biomass into solid (charcoal, torrefied biomass), gas (biogas, synthetic gas), and liquid (ethanol, biodiesel, gasoline) products. Modern biorefineries convert biomass into a combination of these energy products and chemicals. The contents of 898this section can be grouped into two main topics: (1) an overview of the energy efficiency of biomass conversion systems and (2) descriptions of common industrial biomass conversion technologies.