
209Capturing Solar Energy through Biomass
© 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
vary widely among plant parts. For example, corn grain is mostly starch (72 wt.%) with
a relatively small amount of ber (13 wt.%) while corn stover, that part of the crop left on
the eld, is mostly ber (84 wt.%) with very little starch content. Often the ber, which is a
polymeric composite of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, is reported in terms of these
three constituents. Biochemical and thermochemical process design requires knowledge
of the organic components because they inuence the nal product composition.
Proximate analysis is important in developing ...