An Overview on the Conversion of Forest Biomass into Bioenergy

Abstract

Biomass plays a crucial role in mitigating the concerns associated with increasing fossil fuel combustion. Among various types of biomass, forest biomass has attracted considerable attention given its abundance and variations. In this work, an overview is presented on different pathways available to convert forest biomass into bioenergy. Direct use of forest biomass could reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with conventional energy production systems. However, there are certain drawbacks to the direct use of forest biomass, such as low energy conversion rate and soot emissions and residues. Also, lack of continuous access to biomass is a severe concern in the long-term sustainability of direct electricity generation by forest biomass. To solve this problem, co-combustion with coal, as well as pelletizing of biomass, are recommended. The co-combustion of forest biomass and coal could reduce carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfide emissions of the process. Forest biomass can also be converted into various liquid and gaseous biofuels through biochemical and thermochemical processes, which are reviewed and discussed herein. Despite the favorable features of forest biomass conversion processes to bioenergy, their long-term sustainability should be more extensively scrutinized by future studies using advanced sustainability assessment tools such as life cycle assessment, exergy, etc.

Spatial forest biomass supply chain analysis in Finland

“…Furthermore, the numbers of fuel fractions and the varieties of rolling stock, comminution machines and storing methods have increased (Spinelli et al 2020), as has the diversity of end products made manufactured from forest chips. Forest fuels can be refined to a standardized solid fuel product such as pellets, for example, or they can be used as a component of a liquid or gaseous fuel product (Yu et al 2021). Additionally, since there are nowadays hundreds of energy plants using forest biomass in Finland (Nivala et al 2016), there could be also opportunities to benefit from backhauling options and multi-way transportation models (Palander et al 2004;Venäläinen and Poikela 2016).…”

Identification of Crucial Intermediates in the Formation of Humins from Cellulose‐Derived Platform Chemicals Under Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Reaction Conditions

“…Biomass based fuel production is one of the most sought-after approaches towards green and renewable energy production. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The most abundant biopolymer, cellulose, is an ideal candidate in this respect as its hydrolysis forms glucose, which can be further upgraded to other sugar molecules such as fructose, biofuels and other value-added products. [1,2,5,6,[12][13][14][15][16] However, the yield of chemical reactions that result in various platform chemicals from sugars molecules were found to be very poor, especially in aqueous medium.…”

“…Biomass based fuel production is one of the most sought‐after approaches towards green and renewable energy production [1–11] . The most abundant biopolymer, cellulose, is an ideal candidate in this respect as its hydrolysis forms glucose, which can be further upgraded to other sugar molecules such as fructose, biofuels and other value‐added products [1,2,5,6,12–16] .…”

Process Simulation and Optimization of Anaerobic Co-Digestion

“…Biomass energy is a source of energy from living organisms like wood, agricultural wastes, and manure. Biomass can be converted into biofuels via different methods of conversion: thermal, chemical and biological (Mofijur et al, 2013a;Mofijur et al, 2013b;Yu et al, 2021). Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biological process that is carried out naturally through decomposition with respect to no oxygen presence; it allows microorganisms to digest organic matters to produce biogas which consists of hydrocarbon products (methane), leaving a stabilized solid product (digestate).…”