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3 Conversion Technologies
Maurycy Daroch
Peking University, School of Environment and Energy, Shenzhen, China
(...)anewtypeofthinkingisessentialifmankindistosurviveandmovetoward
higher levels
Albert Einstein, May 25, 1946
3.1 Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students should be familiar with and cognisant of the follow-
ing concepts:
- Major energy resources and their alternatives in the context of energy return on
investment and environmental impact.
- Biomass and fossil fuels as forms of solar energy that has been captured and stored
in a form of chemical molecules.
- Types of biomolecules present in biomass and their potential for bio-fuels and
biomaterials.
- Biomass conversion platforms and energy perspective on conversion of
biomass-derived molecules.
- Themochemical and biochemical methods of biomass conversion.
- Policy aspects of bioenergy and biomaterials development.
3.2 Energy Scenario at Global Level
3.2.1 Why Our Energy is so Important?
It may sound like a trivial question at the first glance and an immediate answer ‘of course
it is important, we need it for everything from cooking the food to moving our cars’
may sound like an obvious answer to most of us. Since for at least three generations we
are living in the world of cheap and abundant energy, we sometimes forget the effects
Introduction to Renewable Biomaterials: First Principles and Concepts,First Edition.
Edited by Ali S. Ayoub and Lucian A. Lucia.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
