16 - Agroindustry wastes: biofuels and biomaterials feedstocks for sustainable rural development

Abstract

Sustainable rural development requires benign, viable resources of energy. It is vital to the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of nations as well as for poverty eradication. The biorefinery mode operates for converting agroindustrial residues into various products, including biofuels and chemicals through a cascade of modern technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, Fischer–Tropsch, and other catalytic processes. The development of the agroindustrial waste-based biorefineries can help to stabilize the economy of the rural areas by offering a clean energy service through the replacement of fossil fuel and creating energy security. A great extent of rigorous effort is currently being made for upgrading the existing biorefinery frameworks to fully attain the sustainability standards required to warrant their full-scale implementation. As a consequence of the mandatory inclusion of the sustainability goals into the biorefinery concept and the escalating concern on the “food-fuel conflict,” the biorefineries based on abundant agroindustry wastes are gathering quick popularity. Indian agroindustry wastes display an extraordinary variety of lignocellulosic biomass and round-the-year availability in ample amounts. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness and poor valorization, these valuable wastes are often destroyed in mass scale for waste management instead of being utilized in a productive way. These residues can be used as an alternate source for the production of different products, such as biogas, biofuel, and as the raw material in various researches and industries. The use of agroindustrial wastes as raw materials can help to reduce the production cost and also reduce the pollution load from the environment. Agroindustrial wastes are used for manufacturing of biofuels, enzymes, vitamins, antioxidants, animal feed, antibiotics, and other chemicals through various processes. The major focus of the present chapter is to present the agroindustry scenario in the world with special reference to India, the adaptability of these wastes to products through cascading of various approaches in a biorefinery mode. The major issues of rural India such as energy security, water purification, and restoration of natural resources such as soil can be partially resolved by using a biorefinery approach. Hence, the implementation of biorefinery unit will help in complete utilization of bio-based resources to produce some value-added end products in an efficient way for sustainable development of rural India.