Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Economic issues of biomass utilization 3. Biomass Characteristics 4. Torrefaction 5. Pyrolysis 6. Tar Production and Destruction 7. Gasification Theory 8. Design of Biomass Gasifiers 9. Hydrothermal Conversion of Biomass 10. Syngas cleaning 11. Biomass co-firing 12. Production of Synthetic Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass 13. Biomass Handling 14. Analytical techniques for biomass analysis

Appendix A. Definition of Biomass Appendix B. Physical Constants and unit conversion Appendix C. Selected Design Data Tables

About the Author

Dr. Prabir Basu, founding President of Greenfield Research Incorporated, a private research and development company in Canada that specializes in gasification and torrefaction, is an active researcher and designer of biomass energy conversion systems. Dr. Basu holds a position of Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department and is Head of Circulating Fluidized Bed Laboratory at Dalhousie University, Halifax His current research interests include frontier areas, chemical looping gasification, torrefaction, biomass cofiring amongst others.Professor Basu also founded of the prestigious triennial International Conference series on Circulating Fluidized Beds, and a private R&D company, Fluidized Bed Systems Limited that specializes on design, training and investigative services on fluidized bed boilers. Professor Basu has been working in the field of energy conversion and the environment for more than 30 years. Prior to joining the engineering faculty at Dalhousie University (formerly known as the Technical University of Nova Scotia), he worked with both a government research laboratory and a boiler manufacturing company.Dr. Basu’s passion for the transformation of research results into industrial practice is well known, as is his ongoing commitment to spreading advanced knowledge around the world. He has authored more than 200 research papers and seven monographs in emerging areas of energy and environment, some of which have been translated into Chinese and Korean. He is well known internationally for providing expert advices on circulating fluidized bed boilers and conducting training courses to industries and universities across the globe.

Reviews

"Briefly, the book provides a detailed but user friendly guidance of the state of art of biomass thermal conversion processes, namely, torrefaction, pyrolysis and gasification. The chapters guide readers through the book, illustrating the theoretical principles, operational parameters and equipment needed in the preliminary design of reactors. The book is mainly intended for professionals, such as sales engineers, project managers and scientists, to assist them in achieving the knowledge required to address the increasing market demand for full-scale technologies or to focus on developing mandatory improvements." --Detritus