Biomass to Energy - an Analysis of Current Technologies, Prospects, and Challenges

With the ever-increasing environmental concerns and the rush to meet the United Nations' sustainable development goals, it is an uphill task to find a single source of energy that may completely replace fossil fuels. Energy derived from biomass is an attractive alternative to transportation fuel along with electricity and heat generation. The bioenergy from agricultural biomass, food crops, forest residue, algae, and municipal waste can also allow sustainable waste management. However, most bioenergy conversion facilities are still in the research or pilot stage and have many technological and economical limitations. This critical review provides an insight into different recourses of biomass, bioenergy conversion routes, and other challenges to biofuel production. An attempt has been made to elucidate the novel technological advancements made in these processes like bio-chemical looping combustion, torrefaction, and photo- and dark fermentation. The integration of these systems with artificial intelligence and machine learning-based modeling and optimization is also discussed to bring insight to alternate advancement routes. A comparison of the conversion methods is attempted to bring insight into the feasibility, sustainability, and advancement of bioenergy production and its commercialization.