Book Series in Biofuels and Biorefineries aims at being a powerful and integrative source of information on biomass, bioenergy, biofuels, bioproducts and biorefinery. It represents leading global research advances and opinions on converting biomass to biofuels and chemicals; presents critical evidence to further explain the scientific and engineering problems in biomass production and conversion; and presents the technological advances and approaches for creating a new bio-economy and building a clean and sustainable society to industrialists and policy-makers.

Book Series in Biofuels and Biorefineries provides the readers with clear and concisely-written chapters on significant topics in biomass production, biofuels, bioproducts, chemicals, catalysts, energy policy and processing technologies. The text covers areas of plant science, green chemistry, economy, biotechnology, microbiology, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and energy studies.

Series description

Annual global biomass production is about 220 billion dry tons or 4,500 EJ, equivalent to 8.5 times the world’s energy consumption in 2008 (532 EJ). On the other hand, the world’s proven oil reserves at the end of 2011 amounted to 1652.6 billion barrels, which can only meet 54.2 years of global production. Therefore, alternative resources are needed to both supplement and replace fossil oils as the raw material for transportation fuels, chemicals and materials in petroleum-based industries. Renewable biomass is a likely candidate, because it is prevalent throughout the world and can readily be converted to other products. Compared with coal, the advantages of using biomass are: (i) it is carbon-neutral and sustainable when properly managed; (ii) it is hydrolysable and can be converted by biological conversion (e. g., biogas, ethanol); (iii) it can be used to produce bio-oil with high yield (up to 75%) by fast pyrolysis because it contains highly volatile compounds or oxygen; (iv) biofuel is clean because it contains little sulfur and its residues are recyclable; (v) it is evenly distributed geographically and can be grown close to where it is used, and (vi) it can create jobs in growing energy crops and building conversion plants. Many researchers, governments, research institutions and industries are developing projects to convert biomass (including forest woody and herbaceous biomass) into chemicals, biofuels and materials and the race is on to create new “biorefinery” processes. The development of biorefineries will create remarkable opportunities for the forestry sector, biotech­nology, materials and the chemical processing industry, and it will stimulate advances in agriculture. It will help to create a sustainable society and industry based on renewable and carbon-neutral resources.

Zhen Fang • Richard L. Smith, Jr. • Xinhua Qi Editors