Biomass liquefaction is becoming increasingly important due to the increasing needs in liquid fuel. There are different ways for people to do biomass liquefaction. The attached paper is a good summary in this field.
Biomass gasification is important also since it can be used for obtaining CO and H2 which can be further processed to produce a lot of chemicals people need.
Having said this, the it really depends what people need from biomass. People's needs (for products) determine the forms of biomass processing, gasification and liquefaction.
One recent paper which covers the techno-economic aspects of biomass hydrothermal liquefaction and subsequent upgrading to transportation fuels can be found in the link that I have provided here.
May I request you please to send me a copy of the reference paper "Techno-economic analysis of liquid fuel production from woody biomass via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and upgrading".
Access to the journal papers is something that is provided by my employer, and therefore I do not have a right to forward any copies of this paper to anyone working outside of my institute.