Handbook of Biofuels Production, 2nd Edition

15.2. Biomass feedstock for gasification

Biomass is the oldest source for energy production and it has been used for cooking and heating for centuries. It provides approximately 12% of the current world final energy consumption. However, half of this energy supply is produced from traditional nonefficient processes, mainly in developing countries; and, consequently, only 6% of the final energy consumption can be considered to proceed from renewable biomass (Demirbaş, 2001; REN21, 2014). Worldwide economic, political and environmental problems that have arisen from the dependency on fossil fuels as main energy sources have driven recent research on the modern use of biomass for bioenergy and biofuels production, including the efficient production ...