The Handling, Storage, and Preservation of Plant Biomass

Abstract

Biomass used to produce biofuels and biopower is a growing trend in contemporary circular economies, which is expected to bridge the global energy security gap in the near future. The success of biomass bioenergy conversions is influenced by the understanding of its characteristics and processes involved in its supply chain. This chapter explores the characteristics of plant biomass, its processing, handling, storage, and preservation using preexistent literature. The aim is to optimize bioenergy conversions and prevent biomass wastage during the processing chain. Findings show that agricultural biomass is seasonal in nature and to ensure year-round availability, appropriate value chain processing from collection, pretreatment, loading, transportation, unloading, storage, and feeding to biorefineries must be optimized. The handling must ensure minor or no quality and quantity losses that result from the development of fines, moisture uptake by biomass, dry matter losses, and/or spoilage. Storage can be optimized through dry or wet systems and at a bare minimum, it must preserve the biomass from microbial degradation. This study highlights the precautionary measures to be taken to improve the handling of plant biomass and made recommendations for extensive research on plant biomass processing.