Anthony Anukam

By Anthony Anukam and Jonas Berghel

Biomass has the potential to replace conventional fuels in a number of applications, particularly in biofuel production. It is an abundantly available renewable material with great potential as a feedstock for bioconversion processes for the production of energy, fuels and a variety of chemicals. Due to its biogenic origin, the carbon dioxide released from its combustion process does not impact atmospheric carbon dioxide. Despite these merits, a major problem hindering its widespread use has always been its recalcitrant nature, in terms of its inherent characteristics, which are unfavorable to its use in bioconversion and bio refinery processes. This makes it necessary for biomass to be pretreated before use in any conversion process for maximum product recovery. However, a major issue with regards to biomass pretreatment is the lack of rapid, high throughput and reliable tools for assessing and tracing biopolymer components of biomass relevant to the energy production potential of the biomass. This chapter therefore presents an overview of the pretreatment and characterization of biomass relevant to energy, fuels and chemicals production. The information provided will bequeath readers with the basic knowledge necessary for finding an auspicious solution to pretreatment problems and the production of energy from pretreated biomass.

Part of the book: Biotechnological Applications of Biomass

By Ali Mohammadi and Anthony Anukam

Since the world is gradually drifting toward sustainable development, renewable energy technologies are gaining traction and gasification technology is one of many renewable energy technologies that have gained popularity in recent times. The gasification technology is one of three main (combustion and pyrolysis) thermochemical conversion pathways that can be used to recover energy from biomass materials. Although the gasification technology has been in existence for centuries, it has not been exploited to its full potential mainly because the fundamental principles underpinning its operation are still vague, particularly with regard to feedstock flexibility and the type of gasification system. Furthermore, due to the many types of gasification systems, the mechanisms involved in their feedstock conversion processes are still under debate and require further research to clearly establish the optimum conditions of performance of each type of gasifier. Therefore, this chapter presents an overview of the gasification technology and discusses the different types of gasification systems that are commonly used today for the recovery of energy. The limitations of each type of gasifier in relation to performance and feedstock conversion are also discussed, including research priority areas that will allow for system optimization in terms of efficiency.

Part of the book: Latest Research on Energy Recovery