Chapters authored
Bioethanol Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass
An overview of the basic technology to produce bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is presented in this context. The conventional process includes two main steps. First, lignocellulose must be pretreated in order to remove lignin and enhance the penetration of hydrolysis agents without chemically destruction of cellulose and hemicellulose. Second, the pretreated material is converted to bioethanol by hydrolysis and fermentation. Some typical published studies and popular processing methods in attempts to improve the biomass conversion to bioethanol and increase the cost-effectiveness are also introduced briefly. Herein, the refinery of the resulted raw bioethanol mixture to obtain higher concentrated solution is not regarded.
Part of the book: Alcohol Fuels
Gasification of Biomass
Gasification is an indirect combustion of solid and liquid biomass by converting them to combustive syngas. Gasification is an alternative process for the traditional combustion, in which the emission of dust and toxic gases can be minimized. In this chapter, a comparison of these two biomass-to-heat conversion processes applied on biomass is presented in term of environmental impacts and technological benefits with a hope to provide readers a basic view of choices. Gasification is classified as in term of gasification agents, non-catalytic and catalytic process, and plasma assisted process. Popular types of gasification equipment, aka gasifiers, are introduced with working principles, through which the advantages and weakness of technology are briefly discussed.
Part of the book: Biotechnological Applications of Biomass