The present invent provides improved rapid thermal conversion processes for efficiently converting wood, other
biomass materials, and other carbonaceous feedstock (including hydrocarbons) into high yields of valuable
liquid product, e.g., bio-oil, on a large scale production. In an embodiment,
biomass material, e.g., wood, is feed to a conversion
system where the
biomass material is mixed with an upward
stream of hot heat carriers, e.g., sand, that thermally convert the biomass into a hot vapor
stream. The hot vapor
stream is rapidly quenched with quench media in one or more condensing chambers located downstream of the conversion
system. The rapid
quenching condenses the vapor stream into
liquid product, which is collected from the condensing chambers as a valuable
liquid product. In one embodiment, the liquid product itself is used as the quench media.