Plant biomass are woody and non-wood materials (e.g., oil palm, bamboo, rattan, bagasse, and kenaf) and are abundant and renewable resource. Unfortunately, the heavy reliance on this resource is a threat to forest ecosystems and a recipe for accelerated land resource degradation. Due to the increasing scarcity of wood resources, many rural communities have shifted to utilization of crop residues for many different applications. The non-wood biomass is readily available, environmental friendly, and technologically suitable, and therefore, an excellent raw material for the future. The non-wood materials like bamboo, rattan, oil palm, and bagasse have superior properties and durability, which can be further prolonged by the modifi cation treatment. The modifi cation treatments increase the performance of the non-wood and could make it suitable for applications in many fi elds ranging from construction industry to automotive industry. This chapter deals with the properties improvement techniques of the selected non-wood biomasses and evaluates its applications for various purposes. The new developments dealing with the improvement of non-wood properties have also been presented in the chapter. The performance of non-wood biomass materials has been compared to the wood-based materials. Recent studies pertaining to the above topics have also been cited. Finally, the advanced applications of the improved non-wood biomasses have been highlighted.

Biomass and bioenergy

Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds

Microalgae-based wastewater treatment for nutrients recovery: A review

Progress in biomass torrefaction: Principles, applications and challenges

Reactor technologies for biodiesel production and processing: a review.

Production of a bioflocculant from Aspergillus niger using palm oil mill effluent as carbon source.

Torrefaction of oil palm kernel shell in the presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is becoming an appealing research topic because of the urgent need to minimize global warming and the demand for alternative energy resources. However, DRM commercialization and industrial scale application are limited by the deactivation of the applied catalysts. In this work, Ni-based catalysts supported on CeO2–MgO mixed oxides (0–20% CeO2 molar content) were prepared and employed in DRM. The support was synthesized via a coprecipitation method followed by impregnation of Ni metal. The catalysts prepared were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. The catalytic performance of the catalysts was evaluated in a fixed-bed continuous reactor with an equimolar (CH4/CO2) ratio at 1073 K. The addition of CeO2, as a promoter to the support, altered the interaction between Ni and MgO and modulated the properties ...

Syngas Production via Methane Dry Reforming over Ceria–Magnesia Mixed Oxide-Supported Nickel Catalysts

Sequencing batch membrane photobioreactor for real secondary effluent polishing using native microalgae: Process performance and full-scale projection

Thermogravimetric data, the Coats–Redfern free integral method, and correlation coefficients obtained by use of different reaction models were used to study the kinetic characteristics of non-catalytic and catalytic pyrolysis of biomass. Zeolite catalysts (ZSM-5, MCM-22, and ITQ-2) were mixed with the biomass in the ratio 1:10. Analysis of thermogravimetric data revealed that thermal decomposition occurred at 240–450 °C for both non-catalytic and catalytic pyrolysis of biomass. Two temperature regions, region I 240–330 °C and region II 360–450 °C, were identified and a best-fit model describing the behavior of non-catalytic and catalytic biomass pyrolysis was obtained. Addition of catalyst reduces the activation energy in first region then increases it in the second region for all reaction orders. Chemical reaction and diffusion-controlled reaction mechanisms could be kinetically characterized and enabled good description of the nature of biomass pyrolysis.

Noridah Osman

Papers

Production of a bioflocculant from Aspergillus niger using palm oil mill effluent as carbon source.

Torrefaction of oil palm kernel shell in the presence of oxygen and carbon dioxide

Syngas Production via Methane Dry Reforming over Ceria–Magnesia Mixed Oxide-Supported Nickel Catalysts

Sequencing batch membrane photobioreactor for real secondary effluent polishing using native microalgae: Process performance and full-scale projection

Kinetic study of the catalytic pyrolysis of paddy husk by use of thermogravimetric data and the Coats–Redfern model