R. Roberto

Renewable Energy from Biomass: Solid Biofuels and Bioenergy Technologies

Biomass is a renewable source of energy that can give a special contribution in reducing the use of conventional fuels from oil and in lowering emissions of high carbon dioxide from large coal use, particularly in a wide country such as China. Moreover, the use of biomass as a fuel can help to meet the increasing energy demand of a country with a high rate of economic growth. In this chapter, the discussion is limited to solid bio-fuels as wood, woody and agricultural crops residues, and about sludge and wastewater treatment processes for the production of biogas. The main technologies used to obtain energy from biomass fuels are well known, concerning the fields of direct combustion, and Italy offers a wide number of case-studies that could result in very interesting applications in Chinese rural areas. The solid-biomass gasification and pyrolysis processes are quite new technologies now under investigation, with documented experimental test facilities and study cases, but they are not yet on-the-market technologies.