ABSTRACT
Mechanical fractionation of plant material has been thoroughly developed and is used widely in the food industry. Most biomass utilization schemes treat all of the biomass in a similar way, grinding the material and processing it as if it were a homogeneous feedstock. The chapter discusses the benefits that mechanical fractionation if developed and implemented could have on biomass pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes. Mechanical separations also present an opportunity to generate fractions of biomass with specific chemical and physical traits that could be advantageous in pretreatment, hydrolysis, or conversion processes. Mechanical fractionation can provide effective and affordable methods to improve the quality of feedstocks, thus making less expensive feedstocks available for use in the feedstock supply chain. Incorporating mechanical fractionation into the biomass feedstock supply chain could be added in-line with existing feedstock processing equipment. The challenge to getting mechanical fractionation adopted at the industrial level is demonstrating its effectiveness to industrial partners.
