Composition of plant biomass and its impact on pretreatment

Abstract Plant biomass is a kind of renewable, eco-friendly, abundant, and clean energy. The utilization of plant biomass can reduce reliance on fossil fuels and improve the problem of environmental pollution. Most agriculture, forestry, and food wastes contain ligno-cellulosic resources. The composition of ligno-cellulose can be used to produce biofuels, like bioethanol, biogas, organic acids, and chemicals. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the composition, structure, and characterization of plant biomass, including the main components of cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, pectin, extractives, and inorganic components. They are associated with each other, forming the complex net structures in biomass. While due to the physicochemical, structural, and compositional factors, the useful resources as sugars and other organic compounds cannot be utilized to convert into fuels reasonably and sufficiently. So the impact of plant biomass on pretreatment is discussed in this chapter.