Sustainable Energy Through Pyrolysis: Bridging Innovation With Implementation in Biomass Conversion

Biomass pyrolysis is a promising thermochemical process for converting organic feedstocks into bio‐oil, biochar, and syngas, with potential to reduce fossil fuel dependence, mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and address bio‐waste challenges. Despite this potential, technological, operational, and economic barriers have limited large‐scale deployment. This review critically examines how feedstock characteristics, process parameters, and reactor designs influence pyrolysis performance, with particular focus on co‐pyrolysis with plastic waste, sewage sludge, and municipal solid waste to expand feedstock utilization. Emerging enabling tools, such as mechanistic modeling, advanced analytics, and integrated techno‐economic and environmental life cycle assessment (TE‐ELCI), are highlighted for their role in evaluating feasibility, guiding scale‐up, and supporting commercialization. Key challenges remain, including limited mechanistic understanding of complex decomposition pathways, inconsistent product quality definitions (notably for bio‐oil), and insufficient knowledge of catalyst stability under real operating conditions. By synthesizing recent advances, potential application and unresolved issues, this review identifies priority areas for research and argues for a more unified, standardized, and implementation‐oriented approach to accelerate pyrolysis towards commercial maturity.