Thermo-chemical Conversion of Solid Biomass

Due to rapid depletion of natural resources and continuous increase in energy demand, the utilization of biomass has attracted global attention. Biomass being so versatile and scattered in nature in the form of plant-derived and animal-derived. The efficient use of biomass as energy offers certain advantages in terms of energy, environment, economy, and society. In India, about 30% of energy comes from biomass. It can be used for different purposes such as cooking, process heating, electricity generation, steam generation, and mechanical and shaft power applications by using a number of the conversion process. Several technologies are available for biomass conversion such as physical, chemical, thermo-chemical, bio-conversion, etc. However, this chapter focused only on thermo-chemical conversion of solid biomass. Thermo-chemically biomass could be converted to energy by three ways named as Combustion, Gasification, and Pyrolysis. Direct combustion is the most common way of converting biomass to energy in presence of stoichiometric oxygen. Gasification is the partial oxidation process of converting solid biomass into the gaseous fuel. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of oxygen. Compared to the other technologies, thermo-chemical primary conversion (gasification, pyrolysis) is the simplest and most developed technology.