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Biomass as Feedstock

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Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation

Abstract

The world has a wide variety of biofeedstocks. Biomass is a term used to describe any material of recent biological origin, including plant materials such as trees, grasses, agricultural crops, or animal manure. In this chapter, the formation of biomass by photosynthesis and the different mechanisms of photosynthesis giving rise to biomass classification are discussed. Then, these classifications and composition of biomass are explained. The various methods used to make biomass amenable for energy, fuel, and chemical production are discussed next. These methods include pretreatment of biomass, biochemical routes of conversion like fermentation, anaerobic digestion, transesterification, and thermochemical routes like gasification and pyrolysis. An overview of current and future biomass feedstock materials, for example, algae, perennial grass, and other forms of genetically modified plants, is described including the current feedstock availability in United States.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering Department, Louisiana State University, 727 Martin Luther King Drive West Apt 714W, Baton Rouge, LA, 45220, USA

    Debalina Sengupta Ph.D.

  2. Minerals Processing Research Institute, Louisiana State University, 1139 Energy, Coast and Environment Building, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Dr. Ralph Pike

Authors
  1. Debalina Sengupta Ph.D.
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  2. Dr. Ralph Pike
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Debalina Sengupta Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi, Mississippi, USA

    Wei-Yin Chen

  2. National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi, Mississippi, USA

    John Seiner

  3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), Nagoya, Japan

    Toshio Suzuki

  4. The Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), Wien, Austria

    Maximilian Lackner

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Sengupta, D., Pike, R. (2012). Biomass as Feedstock. In: Chen, WY., Seiner, J., Suzuki, T., Lackner, M. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7991-9_25

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