Pr. Wei-Hsin CHEN

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

The development of green fuel and energy technologies has attracted a great deal of attention in that it can lessen fossil (nonrenewable) fuel consumption, abate greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate global warming and climate change for resource and environmental sustainability. Torrefaction is a promising thermochemical conversion process to pretreat and upgrade biomass for its further utilization. After undergoing torrefaction, the disadvantages of biomass such as hygroscopic and biodegradable nature, high moisture content, low calorific value, poor grindability, large volume or low bulk density, and low homogeneity for industrial usage can be solved, making biochar approach coal. As a result, torrefied biomass can be used as an alternative to coal consumed in the industry. This study addresses the advances in biomass torrefaction technology to produce biochar for green fuel and energy. The applications of torrefied biomass in the industry such as combustion, gasification, ironmaking, pyrolysis, and liquefaction are also underlined.

Pr. Wei-Hsin CHEN : Distinguished Professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He visited the Princeton University, USA (2004-2005), the University of New South Wales, Australia (2007), the University of Edinburg, UK (2009), the University of British Columbia, Canada (2012 & 2013), and the University of Lorraine, France (2017 & 2018) as a visiting professor. He was also an invited lecturer in the University of Lorraine (2019 & 2020). His research interests include bioenergy, hydrogen energy, clean energy, carbon utilization, etc. He has published around 450 papers in international and domestic journals and conferences. He is the associated editor of International Journal of Energy Research, and the editorial members of some international journals, including Applied Energy, Energies, Energy, Ecology and Environment, etc. He is also the author of several books concerning energy science and air pollution. Recently, his important awards include 2015 and 2018 Outstanding Research Award (Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan), 2015 Highly Cited Paper Award (Applied Energy, Elsevier), 2017 Outstanding Engineering Professor Award (Chinese Institute of Engineers), 2019 Bioresource Technology Award for Highly Cited Review Article, and 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher Awards.