Abstract: Biomass is the sole renewable carbon resource that can be transferred into liquid and gas fuels as well as other chemicals. As the fossil energy will be exhaustive, humans pay more attention to the problems of global environment. Many scholars and researchers in world have been focusing on the research and development of biomass energy to substitute for fossil energy. The annual available biomass resource is 3.14 hundred million tce, 54% of which is straw and 36% of which is firewood in China. Now there are more than 180 hundred million tons of total forestry biomass resource, of which 8-10 hundred million tons can be collected and 3 hundred million tons can be used for biomass energy. This article mainly discusses the main conversion methods for utilization of biomass,including pyrolysis gasification for power/heat/gas by thermochemical high efficient conversion technology: flash pyrolysis for liquid fuel(bio-oil) and biomass gasification for synthetic liquid fuel(such as diesel DME),as well as biochemical conversion technology. The paper also discusses the status on R & D of biomass energy utilization technology and industrialization in China.

Key words: biomass energy, thermochemistry, pyrolysis, gasification for power, biodiesel