ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the environmental impacts and control possibilities for the conversion of biomass to particular biofuels, and the effects of biomass fuel effluents in a number of end use applications. Pyrolysis or incomplete combustion of biomass can produce a number of forms of fuel, depending on temperatures and pressures. Direct combustion of biomass will be increasingly utilized in firing large-scale boilers for both process heat and the generation of electricity. Environmental controls are readily available for many of the modern combustion and thermo-chemical options; often technology from the petroleum industry is readily available for all these technologies. Impacts on the environment from biochemical conversion processes consist primarily of water pollution, not air emissions. The chapter considers the impacts from two types of ethanol conversion processes—sugar or starch fermentation and wood hydrolysis—as well as those from biogas production. Potential pollutants from wood, charcoal, producer gas, alcohols, and biogas must be considered by the planner.