Energy from biomass

In recent years, the development of renewable energy from biomass has received a great deal of attention as a result of serious environmental problems, exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the growing global population. In this chapter, the use of various types of biomass for biofuel production and heat and power generation is discussed. In section one, the major types, characterizations, availability, and distribution of world biomass resources are summarized in detail, followed by Section 21.2, with a discussion on the production of conventional biofuels including bioethanol, biobutanol, and biodiesel. In Section 21.3, the advanced biofuels production via fast pyrolysis, microwave-assisted pyrolysis, and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is covered. In addition, Section 4 reviews the use of third-generation biomass algae as the feedstock for producing biofuels, with a focus on the in situ transesterification for biodiesel, HTL for bio-oil, and anaerobic digestion for biogas. Following this, Section 5 presents the utilization of biomass for heat and power generation by combustion, gasification, and anaerobic digestion. Finally, Section 6 provides the main conclusions and recommendations for future work. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.