What is it about?
Bio-fuel production from lignocellulosic biomass
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Why is it important?
Global energy demands are primarily met through non‐renewable sources such as coal, natural gas, and oil. However, the scarcity and rising prices of fossil fuels, coupled with the unprecedented environmental problems, lead the researchers to find out a microbial alternative to address these issues. Biofuel has emerged as an attractive solution which can be effectively used in the current scenario. Among the probable list of alternates, biobutanol is an important renewable source of biofuel which can be easily accommodated in existing fuels due to its better performance and other advantages over other biofuels. Bio‐butanol can be efficiently produced from industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste material through microbial fermentation. Industries produce a huge amount of waste, and if not managed properly, it can be a major cause of pollution related to soil, water, and air. Microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Bacillus subtilis, Clostridium beijerinkckii, Pseudomonas putida, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, etc. can utilize carbohydrate rich waste material to produce bio‐butanol through aerobic and anaerobic fermentation. Production of biobutanol from industrial wastes not only provides an ideal, eco‐friendly clean/green energy source but also has potential to address the global issues of pollution, global warming, and greenhouse effect etc. to a greater extent. The issues such as global status of bio‐energy, source of butanol production, purification, extraction, and strategies to enhance biobutanol yield through biotechnological interventions have been discussed in the present paper.
Perspectives
The cost of production of butanol through the conventional ABE fermentation is higher than that of petrochemical processes due to the low butanol titer, yield, and productivity during various processes. A low butanol titer usually leads to an extremely high recovery cost. Butanol recovery techniques including gas stripping, liquid‐liquid extraction, adsorption, and membrane‐based techniques can be used for in‐situ recovery of inhibitory products to enhance butanol production. Hybrid integrated recovery processes with high selectivity and complementary, genetically modified microorganism, low cost and pretreated substrates (lignocelluloses and hemicelluloses from waste), and continuous removal of products from media (to prevent microbial toxicity) can compensate for the respective disadvantages and a hope for increased productivity and wide spread industrial application in future. The available information demonstrates that butanol is an attractive renewable source of energy superior to ethanol and bio‐diesel. Further conversion of biomass into butanol by enzymatic action of solventogenic microbes has interesting advantages, besides being environment friendly. Although, butanol production is difficult but applications of biotechnological interventions and advancements in the field of genetic engineering can make it more useful and easier. Genetically modified microorganism can improve yield as well as quality product. Thus, butanol production from waste will help to solve two critical issues of present scenario, the energy crises, and environment pollution.
Vishal Ahuja
Himachal Pradesh University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Biobutanol: New era of biofuels, International Journal of Energy Research, August 2018, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/er.4180.
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