Biofuels production from lignocellulose

Now the bioethanol is a dominant biofuel and the demand for the bioethanol continues to increase steadily for several decades [1]. To overcome the shortage of raw material, the technology developments for bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass have been carried out intensively. Since the collection cost of the wood biomass is too high in Korea,... 

Many well-financed technology development companies are actively pursuing scale-up and commercialization of variations of enzymatic hydrolysis technology for specific pretreated biomass feedstocks. Within the next several years, it is anticipated that enzymatic hydrolysis technologies, as practiced by these companies, will be contributing to commercial production of a range of biofuels and chemical products from lignocellulosic feedstocks. 

Chandra, R., Takeuchi, H., Hasegawa, T., 2012. Methane production from lignocellulosic agricultural crop wastes a review in context to second generation of biofuel production. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16 (3), 1462-1476. 

Bioethanol (mainly from sucrose and starchy crops) and biodiesel production (via transesterihcation of triglycerides) are the main first-generation biofuels that are currently produced on industrial scale. Biodiesel is produced by transesterihcation of triacylglycerols with short-chain alcohols (mainly methanol or ethanol) to produce monoalkyl esters, namely fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs). The worldwide production of biodiesel is mainly dependent on the utilization of waste oils, animal fats, and oilseeds such as rapeseed, sunflower, and soybeans. The recent food crisis has shown that research should focus on the development of second-generation biofuels generated from lignocellulosic raw materials and industrial waste streams (eg, food industry wastes). 

Cherubini F, Stromman AH. Production of biofuels and biochemicals from lignocellulosic biomass estimation of maximum theoretical yields and efficiencies using matrix algebra energy fuels. Energy Fuels. 2010 24 2657-66. 

Gonzalez-Garcfa, S., Moreira, M. T., Feijoo, G. (2010b). Environmental performance of lignocellulosic bioethanol production from Alfalfa stems. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, 4, 118—131. 

The production of 5-HMF and furfural from lignocellulosic biomass (com stalk, rice straw and pine wood) in ILs, catalyzed by CrCls imder microwave irradiation, was reported with yields 45-52% and 23-31% respectively, from corn stalk, rice straw and pine wood in less than 3 min (Table 2) [3]. This method paved the way for energy-efficient and cost-effective conversion of biomass into biofuels and platform chemicals [3]. 

Second generation biofuels are produced from biomass in a more sustainable fashion, which is tmly carbon neutral or even carbon negative in terms of its impact on CO2 concentrations. In the context of biofuel production, the term plant biomass refers largely to lignocellulosic material as this makes up the... 

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