Focusing on the conversion of biomass into gas or liquid fuels the book covers physical pre-treatment technologies, thermal, chemical and biochemical conversion technologies Details the latest biomass characterization techniques Explains the biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes Discusses the development of integrated biorefineries, which are similar to petroleum refineries in concept, covering such topics as reactor configurations and downstream processing Describes how to mitigate the environmental risks when using biomass as fuel Includes many problems, small projects, sample calculations and industrial application examples