Recent advancement in thermochemical conversion of biomass to biofuel

Abstract

Biofuel’s carbon neutrality possesses great potential in decarbonizing existing fossil fuels dependency. Biofuel can be produced from various low-cost and renewable wastes including agricultural residues and sewage sludge, through various methods like thermochemical and biological pathways, producing solid, liquid, or gaseous biofuels. Among the two, thermochemical methods offer significantly shorter reaction time and higher versatility toward feedstocks as compared to the biological route. Though, there are challenges caused by the biomass heterogeneity and low biofuel quality in thermochemical conversion methods. Hence, this review aims to discuss recent advancements of thermochemical conversion technologies of biomass to biofuel, including torrefaction, pyrolysis, transesterification, hydrothermal processing, and gasification. The challenges encountered in the thermochemical conversion methods are discussed and attempts made in resolving it are also reported. Furthermore, potentials of solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels are also presented in terms of biomass resources availability, and applications in industry and transportation sectors. Overall, sustainable production and utilisation of biofuels are one highly potential alternative towards a net zero carbon future.

Keywords:

• Biofuel
• biomass
• carbon neutrality
• thermochemical conversion
• wastes

Competing interest

The authors declare no competing interest.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under the HICoE research grant (cost centre: 015ME0-014).