Expansion and scale up of technology for ethanol production based on the concept of biorefinery

Abstract

AbstractThe rapid growth of industries and large number of population are considered to be the major two factors that contribute to the crisis of global energy. Biofuels are considered to be the best replacement of the energy produced from the nonrenewable fossil fuels. The use of mature technologies depicts a sear need of biomasses that it causes a competition with the food chain in case of the first generation of Bioethanol. This disadvantage was overcome by the second generation bioethanol where lignocellulosic biomass is the raw material. Algal biomass from marine environment has also gained a lot of importance in third and fourth generation of raw material for biofuel production. The main challenge arrived when scaling up became the biggest problem in the process of bioethanol production. This review mainly aims to focus on the challenges faced in the commercialization of the biofuels. Many scientists are working majorly on economic processes so as to commercialize the biofuel production techniques. Some energy and cost effective distillation process has been described in this review article, which can help in the scaling up the process to an industrial level.Practical ApplicationsThis review mainly aims to focus on the basic overview of the bioethanol production and the challenges faced in the commercialization of the biofuels. Many scientists around the globe are working majorly on economic processes so as to commercialize the biofuel production techniques. The review compiles the evolution of one generation biofuels from another by overcoming the disadvantages of the previous generation. This will help the young researchers to have a complete idea about significance of bioethanol production. In the present times, there are many less pollution causing and renewable natural resources that can produce bioethanol in the laboratory scale effectively. The main challenge is to produce bioethanol in large scale. Though this area for scale up technologies of the ethanol production is less explored, but there is immense scope of development and modification.