Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Pretreatment and
Thermochemical and Biological
Processing of Biomass
Wan Chi Lam
1
, Tsz Him Kwan
1
, Vitaliy L. Budarin
2
,
Egid B. Mubofu
3
, Jiajun Fan
2
and Carol Sze Ki Lin
1
1
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2
Department of Chemistry, Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York, UK
3
Department of Chemistry, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3.1 Introduction
Biomass is produced by green plants through photosynthesis. During photosynthesis,
solar energy is converted into biomass materials and is stored in chemical bonds.
When the chemical bonds are broken, chemical energy is released. Through different
conversion technologies, the chemical energy can be transformed into various chemi-
cals, materials, biofuels, or forms of energy. Pretreated biomass can efficiently con-
vert to desirable products or energy through two main platforms: thermochemical or
biological. Thermochemical conversion technologies involve thermo-decomposition
of biomass into products. The technologies mainly include combustion, torrefaction,
pyrolysis, liquefaction, gasification and hydrothermal biomass activation. Biological
conversion mainly involves conversion of biomass to sugars for fermentative chemi-
cals production with the help of microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi. Figure 3.1
