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Biomass Pretreatment and Characterization for Advanced Biofuels and Biochemicals Production

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 October 2025 | Viewed by 1285

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210000, China
Interests: biomass conversion; biofuels; Fischer-Tropsch reaction; CO2 hydrogenation

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Guest Editor
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China
Interests: electrocatalyst

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Guest Editor
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510000, China
Interests: catalytic fractionation of biomass; catalytic conversion of lignin

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the sole carbon-containing renewable resource globally, biomass has the potential to be converted into a variety of high-value fuels and fine chemicals. The biomass conversion holds significant strategic importance in addressing the depletion of fossil fuels and the escalating environmental challenges anticipated in the future. The production of biochemicals and biofuels plays a crucial role in facilitating the replacement of fossil resources, achieving "carbon neutrality", and promoting sustainable green development within the industry. In view of the complexity and recalcitrant of biomass structures, exploration of green and efficient pretreatment methods, conversion technologies and product characterization techniques and in-depth reaction mechanism studies can promote the development of research on renewable biomass to biochemicals and biofuels.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to the strategy, method, mechanism and characterization technology for biomass pretreatment and conversion to high-value chemicals and fuels.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Novel strategies for efficient biomass pretreatment and conversion using chemical, physio-, mechanical- photic-, electric–chemical, biological methods, etc.
  • Advanced catalytic technologies for conversion of biomass into chemicals and fuels.
  • Advanced technologies for hydrogen production from biomass.
  • Co-conversion of biomass with other organic wastes.
  • Advanced characterization methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of complicated biochemicals and biofuels in biomass pretreatment and conversion.

Dr. Chengyan Wen
Dr. Jingcheng Wu
Dr. Yuting Zhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • biomass pretreatment
  • biomass conversion
  • biochemicals
  • biofuels

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2442 KiB  
Article
Thermodynamic and Techno-Economic Performance Comparison of Methanol Aqueous Phase Reforming and Steam Reforming for Hydrogen Production
by Changsong Hu, Chao Xu, Xiaojun Xi, Yao He and Tiejun Wang
Energies 2025, 18(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18010081 - 28 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1038
Abstract
Methanol, which can be derived from sustainable energy sources such as biomass, solar power, and wind power, is widely considered an ideal hydrogen carrier for distributed and mobile hydrogen production. In this study, a comprehensive comparison of the thermodynamic and techno-economic performance of [...] Read more.
Methanol, which can be derived from sustainable energy sources such as biomass, solar power, and wind power, is widely considered an ideal hydrogen carrier for distributed and mobile hydrogen production. In this study, a comprehensive comparison of the thermodynamic and techno-economic performance of the aqueous phase reforming (APR) and steam reforming (SR) of methanol was conducted using Aspen Plus and CAPCOST software to evaluate the commercial feasibility of the APR process. Thermodynamic analysis, based on the Gibbs free energy minimization method, reveals that while APR and SR have similar energy demands, APR achieves higher energy efficiency by avoiding losses from evaporation and compression. APR typically operates at higher pressures and lower temperatures compared to SR, suppressing CO formation and increasing hydrogen fraction but reducing methanol single-pass conversion. A techno-economic comparison of APR and SR for a distributed hydrogen production system with a 50 kg/h hydrogen output shows that although APR requires higher fixed operating costs and annual capital charges, it benefits from lower variable operating costs. The minimum hydrogen selling price for APR was calculated to be 7.07 USD/kg, compared to 7.20 USD/kg for SR. These results suggest that APR is a more economically viable alternative to SR for hydrogen production. Full article
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