Efficient Technology for the Pretreatment of Biomass III

Dear Colleagues,

Βiomass represents one of the most abundant biological resources, including agricultural and forestry residues, herbaceous and woody crops, manure, sewage sludge, the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste, animal by-products, and algae (third-generation biomass). Although it is the most promising feedstock for biofuels or biomaterials generation, considering its availability and low/zero cost, its complex structure restricts its transformation, accompanied by low conversion yields and productivities. In order to overcome the structural and compositional barriers for converting biomass into bio-products, an efficient fractionation via pretreatment is considered as a prerequisite.
Several pretreatment methods such as mechanical, physicochemical, thermal, and biological have been developed to improve the biomass transformation process efficiencies, rates, and yields. However, their high-cost and specific energy requirements are often significant barriers for the total process economy, remaining the main challenge for scaling-up the whole process. Thus, the development of an efficient, low-cost, and environmentally friendly pretreatment approach is still quite appealing.
This Special Issue will present new trends and recent developments in biomass pretreatment technologies towards bioproducts or biofuels production. Papers describing new insights into pretreatment mechanisms; the development of new, efficient pretreatment processes; environmental, energy or economic assessments, and modeling of pretreatment processes are particularly welcome. Review articles are also welcome.

Dr. Ivet Ferrer
Dr. Georgia Antonopoulou
Dr. Leonidas Matsakas
Dr. Nuriye Altınay Perendeci
Guest Editors

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