Recent progress in bioethanol production from lignocellulosic materials: A review

ABSTRACT

Natural energy sources like petrol and diesel are going to be diminished in the coming future which will lead to increase in the prices and demands of fossil fuels. Therefore, it is important to find a sustainable alternate of fossil fuels. Bioethanol is one of the alternatives, which is produced from different feedstocks including sugar-based, starch-based and lignocellulose-based materials through fermentation. Since sugar-based (sugar cane and sugar beet) and starch-based (corn) materials are sources of staple food, therefore, research on lignocellulosic materials for bioethanol production is a subject of recent studies. Ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials involves different steps, such as pretreatment, hydrolysis, followed by fermentation process and finally ethanol purification. In this review, we have summarized the recent progresses in bioethanol production and processing from lignocellulosic materials.

Keywords:

• Bioethanol
• fermentation
• hydrolysis
• lignocellulosic material
• pretreatment

Acknowledgment

We are very grateful to Prof. Dr. Sajid Masood (Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad) for critical reading and improvement of our manuscript. We are also thankful to Prof. Dr. Asghari Bano (Dean of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad) for fruitful guidance.