Biomass pretreatment technologies

Pretreatment is the first and crucial step to unwrap the complex molecular structure of the biomass and to prepare the feedstock material for further processing to obtain biofuel and biogas. Biomass pretreatment technologies lead to significant maximization of the value of biomass to produce a large array of energy, fuels, and chemicals. Researchers are paying serious attention to pretreatment as it has a direct impact on the efficiency of downstream operations. Broad categories of pretreatment technologies employed for biomass processing are physical, biological, chemical, and physicochemical techniques, which are further divided into several subcategories. However, the effectiveness of these pretreatment techniques depends on the biomass structure, quantity of feedstocks, and operating conditions. The present chapter describes the effect of the various pretreatment technologies on energy recovery in the form of bio-oil or biogas from the biomass (lignocellulosics and sewage sludge) from the perspective of thermochemical and biological processes.