Summaries

Abstract

The scope of this book is a clear reflection of broad and rapid advances recently achieved in biomass energy studies. This reality does not make preparation of concise topical summaries easy: there is so much to consider, to criticize, to commend, that one might almost forget how brief the eventful history of the field is. Though naturally based on and borrowing from many established disciplines—the major ones being plant ecology, forestry, agronomy, agricultural and mechanical engineering—biomass energy studies of clearer focus and greater depth date only since the early 1970s.

…First of all,

This I repeat: that many images

Of things in many ways do flit about

To every quarter and on every side,

Yea, idols passing fine.…

—Lucretius De Rerum Natura (trans. C. E. Bennett)

Die Menschen sind wie Flugsand und man

ist nie sicher was morgen oben liegt.

—Albert Einstein