Achieving carbon-negative bioenergy systems from plant materials

Part 1 Technologies
1.Biomass gasification for bioenergy: Maria Puig-Arnavat, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark; Tobias Pape Thomsen, Roskilde University, Denmark; and Zsuzsa Sárossy, Rasmus Østergaard Gadsbøll, Lasse Røngaard Clausen and Jesper Ahrenfeldt, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark;
2.Fast pyrolysis for biofuel production: David Shonnard, Olumide Winjobi and Daniel Kulas, Michigan Technological University, USA;
3.Producing biofuels with torrefaction: Donald R. Fosnacht, Natural Resources Research Institute – University of Minnesota, USA;

Part 2 Materials
4.Production of biodiesel from renewable sources: Dan Zeng, Daidi Fan, Le Wu and Yuqi Wang, Northwest University, China;
5.Production of biodiesel from oilseeds: Jatropha curcas: Rahmath Abdulla, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia;
6.Production of biodiesel from oilseeds: canola/rapeseed: B. Brian He and Dev Shrestha, University of Idaho, USA;
7.Sustainable use of Miscanthus for biofuel: Paul Robson, University of Aberystwyth, UK; Astley Hastings, University of Aberdeen, UK; John Clifton-Brown, University of Aberystwyth, UK; and Jon McCalmont, University of Exeter, UK;
8.Sustainable use of switchgrass for biofuel: John Fike, Virginia Tech, USA; Vance Owens, South Dakota State University, USA; David Parrish, Virginia Tech, USA; and Rana Genedy, Cairo, Egypt;
9.Sustainable production of willow for biofuel use: M. Weih, P.-A. Hansson, J. A. Ohlsson, M. Sandgren, A. Schnürer and A.-C. Rönnberg- Wästljung, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden;
10.Sustainable use of seaweed for biofuel: Jay Liu, Boris Brigljević and Peyman Fasahati, Pukyong National University, South Korea;

Dr Christopher Saffron is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at Michigan State University, USA. He has published widely in the areas of biofuels, bioproducts, and bioenergy system analysis. He has a growing patent portfolio that includes biomass fractionation, cellulose hydrolysis, catalytic fast pyrolysis, and electrocatalysis. His research and teaching programs are focussed on carbon efficient approaches that benefit from 'energy upgrading', which uses non-fossil electricity to enhance the conversion of biomass into biofuels and bioproducts.

"It is increasingly obvious that we must not only reduce the carbon footprint of existing systems. We must also introduce and rapidly scale up new systems that remove and safely sequester, in the aggregate, gigatons of carbon per year from the atmosphere. Without large-scale carbon-negative systems, the relatively stable and benign climate that we have enjoyed over the past several millennia will be increasingly unstable and prone to extreme behaviours. Thus this is an incredibly important collection of chapters. The editors and authors are to be commended for providing such guidance and insights at a critical time in our collective stewardship of this, our unique and beautiful planetary home.” (Dr Bruce E. Dale, University Distinguished Professor - Michigan State University, USA; Editor in Chief: Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining)