
Justin Heavey, State University of New York

Introduction
Woody biomass is converted into useful forms of energy (i.e. solid, liquid, or gaseous fuels) as well as useful products (e.g. polymers, bio-plastics, char, pellets, and acids) using a number of technological processes. Thermochemical processes depend on the relationship between heat and chemical action as a means of extracting and creating products and energy. This fact sheet briefly covers some of the more important thermochemical conversion and production processes used for obtaining bio-based energy and products from woody biomass.…
Woody biomass is an abundant and readily available resource that historically has not been used much except by forest products manufacturers as an internal energy source at their facilities, although many such manufacturers have also been able to produce excess electric power for sale to the grid. Whereas commercial-scale production of transportation fuels is still in early stages of development, technologies are already well-developed for producing heat and electricity from biomass in firing or co-firing in boilers and in gasification …