Duminda A. Gunawardena and Sandun D. Fernando

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx. doi. org/10.5772/53983

1. Introduction

Depleting reserves, uncertain economics, and environmental concerns associated with crude oil have prompted an extensive search for alternatives for producing transportation fuels. Biomass has been given close scrutiny due to the emphasis on climate change and the ability of biomass based energy systems to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Further, its ability to produce fuels and chemicals that are identical to those produced using petroleum resources, makes biomass an important alternative raw material [1, 2]. Biomass can be considered clean, as it contains negligible amounts of sulfur and nitrogen. Consequently, the emissions of SO2, NOx are extremely low compared to conventional fossil fuels. The overall CO2 emission is considered to be neutral, as CO2 is recycled by the plants through photosynthesis [3]. Moreover, substitution of fossil fuels with biomass-based counterparts could lead to net CO2 emission reductions [4].