5. Conclusion

Supercritical water gasification produces a usable gas from wet biomass. Broadly speaking, the process occurs in two stages: the breaking of carbon chains, leading to gas formation, followed by reactions among these gases, whose final composition at thermodynamic equilibrium is governed by three main reactions. The supercritical conditions allow for the processing of wet biomass (as the pressure prevents water vaporization) without a preliminary drying step and within a homogeneous fluid-solid medium. The resulting gases are easily separated by expanding the mixture at the end of the process.

It is possible to direct the reaction toward the production of ${\mathrm{CH}}_4$ (and other light hydrocarbons). In this case, lower...