Chemical Engineering for Renewables Conversion

Biomass has received considerable attention as a sustainable feedstock that can replace diminishing fossil fuels for the production of energy and chemicals. At the present moment in the oil refining, petrochemical and chemical industry, after fractionation of crude oil, various fractions are upgraded either to fuels or functionalized to produce intermediates and specialty chemicals. An analogous concept of biorefining is based on the utilization of biomass as a renewable source of carbon, which could be transformed to valuable chemicals. Although various aspects of biomass transformations are frequently discussed in the literature, chemical engineering aspects of such transformations are commonly not considered. The aim of the present book is to fill this void.