5. Conclusion

Energy sources from the renewable carbon are critical to address future energy needs, in the all energy consuming sector. Biomass is the largest and most widespread carbon source for producing renewable energy, fuels and chemicals and can be a constant, reliable resource compare to other renewable sources such as solar or wind energy. A wide range of biomass conversion processes are available and are under development. Among these, thermochemical processes offer several advantages, including product versatility, and high conversion rates and efficiencies, although challenges to commercialization still remain.

Wet thermochemical processes including hydrothermal conversion, supercritical gasification and steam hydrogasification are still under development, but have many attractive aspects for use in decentralized, low cost applications, especially for high moisture content biomass. Dry thermochemical conversion processes including direct combustion, gasification and pyrolysis have several specific technology options that are mature. However, economic viability issues and technical challenges related to tar formation and alkaline ash presence still need to be addressed.

New emerging approaches such as the bio-refinery concept which synergistically combines different conversion technologies and generate multiple products are expected to play a key role in addressing the technical and economic barriers of the current thermochemical biomass conversion processes.
