Agricultural Waste Management for Bioethanol Production

Abstract

This chapter contends that bioethanol has received the most attention over other fuels due to less emission of greenhouse gases and production from renewable sources. It is mainly produced from sugar containing feedstocks. Since feedstocks are utilized as food for humans, its consumption in bioethanol production creates a food crisis for the entire world. Bioethanol derived from agriculture waste, which is most abundant at global level, is the best option. Agriculture wastes contain lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses which creates hindrances during conversion to ethanol. Pretreatment of agriculture wastes remove lignin, hemicelluloses and then enzymatically hydrolyzed into sugars. Both pentose and hexose sugars are fermented to bioethanol. There are still various problems for developing an economically feasible technology but a major one is the resistance to degradation of the agricultural material. Use of two or more pretreatment methods for delignification and the use of genetically modified agricultural biomass can be developed for economically feasible ethanol production.