Abstract
Liquid fuels are the power house of modern society. Presently, the bulk of the liquid fuel supply is from petroleum, and the untamed appetite for liquid fuel is pushing society toward the tolerance limit in terms of sustainable development. Meanwhile, vast amounts of biomass are produced annually through photosynthesis. In terms of empirical composition, biomass is similar to coal; hence it is envisaged that technologies hitherto developed for coal liquefaction could be adapted for liquefaction of biomass to hydrocarbon biofuels. However, the liquefaction process suffers from a low liquid fuel yield. In this chapter, we elaborate on this challenge and discuss emerging new opportunities to enhance the liquid fuel yield from biomass liquefaction processes. Thermodynamically, transforming a lower-energy-density feedstock into a higher-energy-density product is associated with a huge energy loss penalty. This is the heart of the problem of a low liquid fuel yield from biomass liquefaction. In this chapter, we explain how some of the energy loss penalty can be compensated for by renewable energy resources. We also discuss tandem processes for enhancing the economics of the biomass liquefaction process and highlight emerging new chemistry techniques for achieving this.
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