A comprehensive review of renewable energy production from biomass-derived bio-oil

Renewable energy production has attracted great attention due to public concerns about the depletion of fossil fuels and the growing emphasis on zero carbon emissions. Two main drivers have pushed renewable energy production to the top of the global agenda: climate change and energy security. Biomass is considered to be the only sustainable source of organic carbon on earth and the perfect equivalent to petroleum for the production of bioenergy, biofuels and fine chemicals with net zero carbon emission in a biorefinery. This review focuses on the potential of producing energy from different biomasses and describes technologies such as direct combustion, microwave technology, hydrothermal liquefaction, and fast pyrolysis to convert biomass into bioenergy. Herein, innovative scalable concepts are provided to perform microwave pyrolysis on a larger scale. Current research is mainly focused on the use of catalysts to enhance the process. Various parameters affect the biomass pyrolysis process, properties, and yields of products. These generally include the biomass source, biomass pretreatment (physical, chemical, and biological), the catalyst, the reaction atmosphere, temperature, the heating rate, and the pressure and vapor residence time. The study also shows how various types of reactors affect the bio-oil yield in the presence of a catalyst.