ENGINEERING Biomass主编谈新刊：洞见生物质的无限可能ENGINEERING Biomass Editor-in-Chief on the New Journal: Insights into the Infinite Possibilities of Biomass

Green Fuel International Business Network has learned that recently, the 2026 International Conference on Biomass Materials and Energy, jointly hosted by Central South University of Forestry and Technology, the University of Toronto in Canada, the University of Toyama in Japan, and the State Key Laboratory of Woody Oil Resources Utilization, was held in Changsha. This conference, with academic support from the journal ENGINEERING Biomass, attracted experts and scholars from many countries to conduct academic dialogue on the efficient utilization of biomass resources. The journal is supervised by the Chinese Academy of Engineering and sponsored by Central South University of Forestry and Technology, and was launched in Beijing this July. During the conference, a reporter interviewed Wu Yiqiang, editor-in-chief of the journal, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Party secretary of Central South University of Forestry and Technology.

According to the definition of the International Energy Agency, biomass refers to various organisms formed through photosynthesis, including all animals, plants and microorganisms. Biomass energy is the form of energy stored in biomass as chemical energy from solar energy and is the fourth largest energy source after coal, oil and natural gas.

Wu Yiqiang pointed out that China's biomass research is currently at a critical stage of continued deepening of basic science and accelerated integration with engineering applications, with related research moving from resource surveys, composition analysis and empirical transformation toward multi-scale structural analysis, life process regulation, structure-activity relationship revelation, precise conversion and system integration. China has abundant biomass resources and a complete industrial system, and has accumulated a certain amount of scientific research in wood and bamboo science, agricultural and forestry biomass, materials chemistry and fermentation engineering. However, in basic research, China still leans toward phenomenon description and single-item performance, and understanding of basic questions such as why biomass forms specific structures, how components coordinate, and how structure determines function is not yet deep enough; in engineering application, some applied research values performance results but lacks mechanistic support and universal laws, easily forming empirical solutions dependent on specific raw materials and experimental conditions.

How to break through? Wu Yiqiang believes that an effective cycle of iteration has yet to form between basic research and engineering practice in China's biomass field: the results of basic research lack verification in real scenarios, and key problems in engineering practice have not been fully translated into basic scientific questions. He said that in the future it is necessary both to value "zero-to-one" scientific discovery and to connect the "one-to-a-hundred" engineering transformation; what really needs connecting is not only the distance from laboratory to factory, but also from phenomenon to mechanism, from mechanism to design, and from design to system. Basic science should provide principles for engineering innovation, and engineering practice should also continuously raise new basic scientific questions.

There are already many academic journals in biology, chemistry, agriculture and forestry science, so why create a new journal specifically focused on biomass? According to the introduction, the distinguishing feature of ENGINEERING Biomass is not simply juxtaposing multidisciplinary content, but centering on biomass as a common subject and connecting its formation and regulation, structure and chemistry, functional design, conversion and manufacturing, and system evaluation. The new journal was not created to add another journal of the same kind, but in the hope of establishing an international platform from basic cognition to engineering innovation and from scientific discovery to industrial application.

The journal's official introduction mentions that it welcomes basic research revealing the formation, structure, chemical composition, biosynthesis, interfacial behavior, carbon fixation and transfer, and structure-function relationships of biomass. Even if such results have not yet directly entered industry, as long as they can change the understanding of biomass, establish new scientific principles or open new technological space, they are important content of interest to the journal. The journal also emphasizes the connection between scientific discovery and engineering problems; for engineering application research, it looks not only at product performance but also at the underlying mechanism, design principles, repeatability and systemic significance. Its core feature is connecting "basic mechanisms-functional design-conversion manufacturing-system evaluation", rather than simply favoring industrialization.

Specifically, the journal focuses on content at multiple levels: at the basic science level, including the discovery and characterization of biomass resources and the mechanisms of biomass formation and regulation; at the transformative technology level, including green catalysis, bioconversion, thermochemical conversion, component separation and reconstruction, and biomimetic design; and at the integrated system level, including intelligent manufacturing and equipment, AI-driven design and optimization, and carbon fixation and cycling. Wu Yiqiang said that when accepting papers there is no set ratio between basic research and engineering application; the principle is that basic research should have originality and scientific depth, and engineering research should have reliability and promotable value.

Wu Yiqiang said that the most important quality of an excellent scientific journal is the ability to identify truly important problems. ENGINEERING Biomass hopes to establish credibility in the short term with high-quality basic research and representative engineering results, form an international academic community covering basic science, technological innovation and systems research in the medium term, and in the long term become a global biomass innovation platform connecting scientific discovery, engineering technology, industrial practice and policy thinking, turning China's resource advantages, scientific research accumulation and engineering practice into new knowledge, new methods and new paradigms shared across the world's biomass field.