Biomass and Waste-to-Energy for Sustainable Energy Production

Dear Colleagues,

Lignocellulosic biomass or waste is a renewable resource due to its near carbon neutrality, role as a clean precursor for fuel/energy production, and positive health and environmental benefits compared to fossil fuels. In this regard, its direct and indirect uses for energy/power and material/fuel production are closely correlated with global warming mitigation and environmental quality improvement because of the reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.  These biomass-based resources are derived from woody and herbaceous plants, thus generating crop residues, food processing waste, lignocellulose-based waste (e.g., paper and wood products), and forest/wood residues.

To produce valuable and carbon-rich biofuels and materials from lignocellulosic biomass or waste, the adopted processes can be mainly categorized into physical (mechanical), thermochemical, and biochemical processes.  The energy forms (i.e., steam, electricity or power) can be generated from biomass and lignocellulosic waste through combustion or cogeneration processes. The resulting biofuels generally refer to biogas (generated via anaerobic digestion), bioethanol (generated via fermentation), bio-oil/bio-coal (generated via pyrolysis), and syngas (generated via gasification). In addition, the carbon-rich porous materials include biochar (generated via pyrolysis) and activated carbon/biochar (generated via physical or chemical activation). Furthermore, these valuable materials have several emerging applications, including being adsorbents for emerging pollutants, catalysts for energy evolution in fuel cells, materials for energy storage in supercapacitors and ion batteries, food additives in the form of a black colorant, and sensors for environmental analysis.

This Special Issue will promote a biocircular economy via the publication of research and review papers relevant to recent advances in biofuels, biomass-to-energy, waste-to-power, solid recovered fuel (SRF), and emerging applications of biomass-derived carbon materials (biochar and activated carbon/biochar).

Prof. Dr. Wen-Tien Tsai
Prof. Dr. Wen-Shing Chen
Guest Editors

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• lignocellulose
• biofuel
• biomass-to-energy
• biochar
• activated biochar
• solid recovered fuel
• circular economy