Potential Bioresources as Future Sources of Biofuels Production: An Overview

Abstract

In recent years, biofuels are receiving increasing public and scientific attention, because of the crude oil reserves of the world that are predicted to deplete in about 40 years and other factors such as uncertainties related to oil price, greenhouse gas emission, and the need for increased energy security and diversity. Biofuels are a wide range of fuels that are in some way derived from renewable bioresources. It is reported that fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas—dominated the world energy economy, covering more than 80 % of the total primary energy supply. Renewable energy sources accounted for 9.8 % of the world’s total primary energy supply in 2007. The wonderful development of the biofuel industry was heralded in the past few years, from the late 1970s as the renewable energy source to worldwide shortages of fossil fuels. Biofuels production is the process of preparing raw materials—starch- or sugar-containing for fermentation by microorganisms, which is currently the only microorganism used for converting sugar into alcohol and the heart of the fermentation process is the yeast cell. Demand for biofuels is increasing at a rate that will require serious consideration of alternatives to the primarily glucose-/starch-based feedstock over the next decade. Various lignocellulosic biomass sources such as agricultural residues, oils, oilseeds, wood and forest wastes, municipal solid wastes, wastes from the pulp and paper industry, and algae have the potential to serve as low-cost and abundant feedstock for biofuels production. Next generation biofuel production from high hydrocarbon (Latex producing) yielding plants and oligogeneous microorganisms are attracting the interest of many investigators in the area of novel and advanced fuels. Advanced genetic engineering tools offer the possibility of improved biodegradative capabilities of cellulases (cellulosomes) by reconstituting cellulosomes and with potent enzymes from different microbial species. Fast-growing grass species, halophytes specifically grown on marginal land and aquatic macrophytes, algae and other oil accumulating microorganisms could provide biofuel feedstock for biorefineries in the future. This chapter focuses the current status and future prospectus of research on ‘liquid biofuel production from different potential substrates’. The first section discusses the introduction of biofuels, the second section gives a detailed presentation on the status and concerns of biofuels, and the third section discusses the types of biofuels and the production of especially liquid biofuels from different bioresources that are currently in use and also points to potential bioresources for future use.