ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two main topics: an overview of the energy efficiency of biomass conversion systems and descriptions of common industrial biomass conversion technologies. Industrial engineers devote significant efforts to increase the carbon conversion by optimizing material treatment, equipment design, and operation parameters. The chapter also discusses direct combustion and co-firing for heat and power production. It examines the technologies that enable biomass fuel gas production. Biomass combustion processes can be combined with a variety of steam and power cycles to generate electricity. These include the classical Stirling, Rankine, and Brayton cycles, as well as fuel cells and combined cycles. The chapter talks about the gasification process which involves four primary steps: heating and drying, pyrolysis, gas–solid reactions, and gas–phase reactions. It explains three basic methods for hydrolyzing structural polysaccharides in plant cell walls to fermentable sugars: concentrated acid hydrolysis, dilute acid hydrolysis, and enzymatic hydrolysis.
