Introduction to Renewable Biomaterials

Chapter 6First Principles of Pretreatment and Cracking Biomass to Fundamental Building Blocks

Amir Daraei Garmakhany¹ and Somayeh Sheykhnazari²

¹Buali Sina University, Toyserkan Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Department of Food Science and Technology, Hamedan, Iran

²Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Department of Wood and Paper Technology, Gorgan, Iran

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen, 1956–1968

6.1 Introduction

The growth of population has increased the need for food and energy, but unfortunately a large number of people in the world encounter shortage of food and energy because of inadequacy of food sources and fossil fuels.

According to the aforementioned reason, nowadays, preparing food materials and energy are two principal challenges in the world. The human used biotechnology and nuclear sciences to supply these needs. He has increased agricultural productions by using racial modification and repellence of plant diseases. Production of fuel and energy using nuclear energy is not accessible to all countries. Biotechnology (fermentation technology) can prepare many needs of society especially energy. Fermentation process requires several factors, including special microorganisms, media, culture, and optimal process (time, temperature, and feeding rate) conditions. Since the basic part of fermentation process costs is media culture, one of the goals in fermentation process is using low-cost media. ...