TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The heat-carrier material is an inert material, and further comprises a catalyst having a material comprising: synthetic hydrotalcite or a calcinated synthetic hydrotalcite, a synthetic hydrotalcite-like material or a calcinated synthetic hydrotalcite-like material, and/or a layered hydroxy salt or a calcinated layered hydroxy salt; a zeolite, modified zeolites, ion-exchanged zeolites, dealuminated zeolites, ultrastable zeolites, ZSM-5, zeolite-Y, and/or modified forms of ZSM-5 and zeolite-Y; or kaolin and/or calcinated kaolin; a mixed metal oxide or a calcinated mixed metal oxide, a supported noble metal, and/or a supported transition metal, where the metal oxide is alumina, zirconia, silica, silica-alumina, and/or titania and the catalyst is impregnated with transition metals comprising nickel, cobalt, tungsten, and/or molybdenum.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: The process further comprises: heating the suspension prior to feeding the suspension into the hydropyrolysis reactor; demineralizing the biomass material prior to torrefying the biomass material, where following demineralization the biomass material has a mineral content of less than 2.5 wt.%; contacting the suspension with a heat carrier material in the hydropyrolysis reactor; and recycling hydrogen to the hydropyrolysis reactor. The step of demineralizing the biomass material, comprises: soaking the solid biomass material with a solvent, and subsequently removing at least part of the solvent, where the solvent is an aqueous solvent, a mineral acid, an organic acid, acetic acid or a carboxylic acid, and has a pH of less than 7; and soaking the solid biomass material with a solvent, and subsequently removing at least part of the solvent, where the solvent is an aqueous basic solution and has a pH above 7. In the step (e), the converting is performed in presence of a catalyst that comprises a metal, which is cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, and/or tungsten. In the process, the biomass is lignocellulosic biomass and the process further comprises removing at least a portion of the lignin from the biomass cellulose prior the step (a). The process produces a gaseous product comprising a light hydrocarbon portion and further uses the light hydrocarbon portion in a reforming process to produce hydrogen. Preferred Components: The organic liquid solvent is bio-oil and/or liquid hydrocarbon obtained from a refinery stream. The liquid hydrocarbon material is naphtha, gasoil, light cycle oil, heavy cycle oil, atmospheric residuum, vacuum residuum, fluid catalytic cracking bottoms, aromatic furfural extract, slurry oil, decant oil, de-asphalted oil, crude oil, atmospheric tower bottoms, atmospheric gas oil, vacuum gas oil, light vacuum gas oil, heavy vacuum gas oil, clarified slurry oil, hydrotreated vacuum gas oil, hydrotreated de-asphalted oil, coker gas oil, and/or hydrotreated coker gas oil. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.