Biomass Feedstock Production and Provision: Overview, Current Status, and Challenges - Engineering and Science of Biomass Feedstock Production and Provision - page 3

The processing of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel is more challenging compared
to that of carbohydrates (starch and sugars) due to biomass recalcitrance [ 10 ].
Lignocellulosic biomass can be converted to fuels and value-added products using
two different routes: biochemical and thermochemical [ 11 ]. The biochemical route
involves pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation as the major processing steps
and is mainly used to produce ethanol [ 12 ]. The thermochemical route involves
gasifi cation to produce syngas, which can then be converted to a variety of products
and chemical building blocks using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and water-gas shift
reaction [ 13 ]. The thermochemical route also includes pyrolysis to produce bio-oil,
which can be refi ned into separate fractions [ 13 ]. There have been signifi cant
research efforts to make these conversion processes more effi cient and cost-
competitive through development in science and technology. It has been argued that
these possibilities can be used to develop a sustainable bio-based economy driven
by biomass resources [ 14 ]. Such a bio-based economy can achieve its sustainability
mission by reducing environmental emissions, achieving energy security, and stim-
ulating rural economy and social well-being.
An important precursor for the success of the proposed bio-based economy is a
continuous, reliable, and cost-effective supply of biomass from sources such as
farms and forests to the biorefi nery that is able to satisfy the expected high demand
rates while maintaining the quality. This constitutes the biomass feedstock produc-
tion and provision (BFPP) system, which is the focus of this topic. The next section
describes the BFPP system in detail.
However, the scope of the topic fi rst needs to be defi ned. As mentioned before,
both forestry and agriculture represent important sources of lignocellulosic biomass
feedstock. The supply systems for the forestry-based material are fairly well devel-
oped as part of the pulp and paper and logging industry. It is expected that many of
the operations in this system will not change even if the biomass is to be used for
energy production. However, this is not true for the agricultural feedstocks such as
energy grasses and crop residues. The crop residues have mostly been used for very
local and immediate applications, and large-scale production of dedicated energy
grasses is not yet practiced. Moreover, some of the novel energy crops may require
new agricultural machinery and modifi ed management practices. The long-distance
transportation of these materials is also relatively diffi cult as compared to forestry
material, since their bulk densities are much lower. Therefore, in our opinion, the
BFPP systems for the agricultural sector require much improvement. The topic,
therefore, focuses primarily on the agricultural sources of biomass feedstock.

1.2 Biomass Feedstock Production and Provision

BFP is a critical subsystem of the overall bio-based energy production and utilization
system. It provides the necessary materials input to the conversion process of bio-
mass into fuel, power, and value-added products. This subsystem includes the opera-
tions of agronomic production of energy crops and physical processing and handling/
delivery of biomass, as well as other enabling logistics. On the technical side,