Feasibility of advancing the development of compact energy systems.

It is necessary to advance the development of compact energy systems for making energy from biomass like wood or switchgrass, as an alternative to the construction of highly capital-intensive large scale biorefineries. Compact energy systems consist of four individual components: a biomass preparation unit, a biomass converter, a fuel processor, and a powered engine. The individual unit processes within each component and the possible types of compact energy systems with different biomass converter technologies like fermentation, pyrolysis, and gasification are presented.