Thermochemical Treatments of Biomass, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2025) | Viewed by 1045

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, 1649-004 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: chemical valorization of lignocellulosic biomass using extraction; thermochemical conversion; adsorption methods
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biomass is defined as “the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from biological origin from agriculture (including vegetal and animal substances), forestry and related industries, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste” by the European Directive 2009/28/EC. From a bioenergy perspective, biomass may be broadly defined as the organic matter derived from plants, which includes wood, bark, and energy crops, as well as waste and algae.

Recently, biomass conversion has received considerable interest due to economic and environmental concerns related to the utilization of depleting petroleum reserves. The utilization of underused or unused biomass in a biorefinery scheme seems to be an economically attractive and sustainable process to reduce waste and to produce value-added materials, chemicals, or fuels from biomass.

Thermochemical treatments are among the most important conversion methods of biomass, in addition to extraction. Thermochemical treatments of biomass include torrefaction; low-temperature, moderate-temperature, and high-temperature pyrolysis; gasification; hydrothermal carbonization (HTC); and liquefaction (HTL), as well as direct liquefaction (solvolysis).

This Special Issue aims to analyze recent advances in different thermochemical treatments of biomass to lay the groundwork for future studies. The submitted articles should comply with The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and green chemistry principles.

The publications in the first volume, which we believe may be of interest to you, can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/environments/special_issues/24O03Q5546.

Dr. Ali Umut Sen
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biomass
  • wood
  • bark
  • crop
  • waste
  • pyrolysis
  • torrefaction
  • gasification
  • hydrothermal carbonization
  • direct liquefaction
  • biorefineries

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

33 pages, 1618 KB  
Review
Hydrothermal Treatment of Digestates: Challenges and Perspectives
by Ebtihal Abdelfatah-Aldayyat and Xiomar Gómez
Environments 2025, 12(10), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments12100347 - 26 Sep 2025
Viewed by 753
Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) effectively treats organic waste and biomass. This process recovers energy as biogas, while a by-product known as digestate requires proper treatment. The goal of enhancing biogas production as a way of increasing the share of renewable fuels in the transport [...] Read more.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) effectively treats organic waste and biomass. This process recovers energy as biogas, while a by-product known as digestate requires proper treatment. The goal of enhancing biogas production as a way of increasing the share of renewable fuels in the transport and industrial sectors comes with the drawback of managing digestates. When digestate cannot be used as an organic amendment, thermal processes provide alternatives for producing valuable energy products. Hydrothermal treatment is particularly promising due to its lower thermal requirements when paired with anaerobic digestion (AD), unlike gasification or pyrolysis. However, challenges such as managing by-products like process water and hydrochar contaminants, along with high operating and maintenance costs, need to be addressed before these technologies can be widely adopted in digestion plants. The present document reviews the current state of the art in hydrothermal carbonization and liquefaction as technologies for treating digestate, focusing on the key aspects that require further research and development. This review examines the existing gaps in the treatment and management of process water, as well as the techno-economic barriers faced when deploying hydrochar-related technologies and integrating them with digestion plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermochemical Treatments of Biomass, 2nd Edition)
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