Biomass is a renewable, unevenly geographically distributed resource that can be consid­ered sustainable and carbon-neutral if properly managed. It can be converted to high-quali­fied gaseous, liquid and solid biofuels with many techniques. This book focuses on the latest conversion techniques for the production of liquid and gaseous biofuels that should be of interest to the chemical scientists and technologists.

This book includes 17 chapters contributed by experts around world on conversion techni­ques. The chapters are categorized into 2 parts: Liquids and Gases and Other Products.

Part 1 (Chapters 1-11) focuses on liquid biofuels. Chapter 1 reviews pathways for the con­version of hemicellulose to biofuels and chemicals. Chapter 2 discusses the production of cellulosic ethanol. Chapter 3 gives the experimental results of ethanol and methanol used in Otto engines. Chapter 4 presents analytic methods to determine trace Cu in ethanol. Chapter 5 reviews gas fermentation process for the production of liquid fuels (e. g., ethanol, butanol and 2,3-butanediol) and other products (e. g., acetic acid and butyric acid). Chapters 6 and 7 overview the production and applications of biobutanol. Chapter 8 describes the metabolic pathways involved in microbial hydrocarbon fuel synthesis and discusses strategies for im­proving biofuel production using genetic manipulation. Thermal conversion and upgrading techniques (such as catalytic hydroprocessing and microwave irradiation) are introduced in Chapters 9-11.

Part 2 (Chapters 12-17) describes production methods for gases and other products. Chap­ters 12 and 13 introduce hydrogen production by anaerobic fermentation, and DC and im­pulse plasma-liquid systems, respectively. Chapter 14 overviews some techniques (e. g., anaerobic digestion, fermentation, lipid extraction and gasification) for the production of bi­ofuels from algae. Chapter 15 briefly introduces the production of biogas, biodiesel and ethanol. Chapter 16 comments on various thermal and biological conversions of oil palm empty fruit bunch to biofuels. Finally, Chapter 17 proposes a biorefinery concept for the co­products of biofuels and value-added biomaterials for sustainable bioeconomy.

This book offers reviews state-of-the-art conversion techniques for biofuels. It should be of interest for students, researchers, scientists and technologists in the engineering and scien­ces fields.

I would like to thank all the contributing authors for their time and efforts in the careful construction of the chapters and for making this project realizable. It is certain to inspire many young scientists and engineers who will benefit from careful study of these works and that their ideas will lead us to develop even more advances methods for producing liquids and gases from biomass resources.

I am grateful to Ms. Iva Simcic (Publishing Process Manager) for her encouragement and guidelines during my preparation of the book.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my family for their kind coop­eration and encouragement, which help me in completion of this project.

Zhen Fang

Leader of Biomass Group Chinese Academy of Sciences Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China