Chapter 15 - Challenges and future perspectives involved for operations in the production of bioenergy from biomass

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass is well established as an inexpensive renewable source to produce biofuel and other value-added bioproducts. Several pretreatment methods have been developed to avert the recalcitrant nature of biomass for the subsequent accessibility of polysaccharides. However, these pretreatment methods also produce significant secondary compounds, which are inhibitory to enzymes and microorganisms. For biogas production through anaerobic digestion (AD), hydrothermal pretreatment of biomass is considered a promising approach among the available pretreatment methods. However, a higher carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) of lignocellulosic biomass is reported as the limiting factor for a higher biogas yield. The synergistic integration of low and high C/N ratio lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock in AD not only facilitates but also enhances the biogas yield. In this chapter, problems and possible remedies of associated techniques for the conversion of bioenergy from biomass are discussed.