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Biomass conversion technologies transform a variety of wastes
into heat, electricity and biofuels by employing a host of strategies. Conversion
routes are generally thermochemical or biochemical, but may also include
chemical and physical. Physical methods are frequently employed for size
reduction of biomass wastes but may also be used to aggregate and densify small
particles into pellets or briquettes.
A wide range of conversion technologies are under continuous
development to produce biomass energy carriers for both small and large scale
energy applications. Combustion is the most widely used technology that
releases heat and can also generate power by using boilers and steam turbines.
The simplest way is to burn the biomass in a furnace, exploiting the heat
generated to produce steam in a boiler, which is then used to drive a steam
turbine. At the smaller scale, biomass pellet and briquette combustion systems
mainly used for domestic and industrial heat supply are experiencing growing
demand in some countries due to their convenience.
Advanced technologies include biomass integrated
gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) systems, co- firing (with coal or gas),
pyrolysis and second generation Biofuels. Second generation Biofuels can make
use of biochemical technologies to convert the cellulose to sugars which can be
converted to bioethanol, biodiesel, dimethyl ester, hydrogen and chemical
intermediates in large scale bio-refineries.
