Overview

Fossil fuels are finite energy resources (Pimentel and Pimentel, 2006). Therefore, reducing national dependence of any country on imported crude oil is of critical importance for long-term security and continued economic growth. Supplementing petroleum consumption with renewable biomass resources is a first step toward this goal. The realignment of the chemical industry from one of petrochemical refining to a biorefinery concept is, given time, feasible has become a national goal of many oil-importing countries. However, clearly defined goals are necessary for increasing the use of biomass-derived feedstocks in industrial chemical production and it is important to keep the goal in perspective.

In this context, the increased use of biofuels should be viewed as one of a range of possible measures for achieving self sufficiency in energy, rather than a panacea (Crocker and Crofcheck, 2006; Worldwatch Institute, 2006; Freeman, 2007; Nersesian, 2007).

Biomass, a source of energy has been used since ancient times (Xiaohua and Zhenmin, 2004), is the collective name for renewable materials which includes: (a) energy crops grown specifically to be used as fuel, such as wood or various grasses, (b) agricultural residues and by-products, such as straw, sugarcane fiber, rice hulls animal waste, and (c) residues from forestry, construction, and other wood-processing industries (Brown, 2003; NREL 2003; Wright et al., 2006).

Biomass is a renewable resource, whose utilization has received great attention due to environmental considerations and the increasing demands of energy worldwide (Tsai et al., 2007). Biomass is clean for it has negligible content of...