Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass has been recognized as promising feedstock for biofuels production. However, the high cost of pretreatment is one of the major challenges hindering large-scale production of biofuels from these abundant, indigenously-available, and economic feedstock. In addition to high capital and operation cost, high water consumption is also regarded as a challenge unfavorably affecting the pretreatment performance. In the present review, advances in lignocellulose pretreatment technologies for biofuels production are reviewed and critically discussed. Moreover, the challenges faced and future research needs are addressed especially in optimization of operating parameters and assessment of total cost of biofuel production from lignocellulose biomass at large scale by using different pretreatment methods. Such information would pave the way for industrial-scale lignocellulosic biofuels production. Overall, it is important to ensure that throughout lignocellulosic bioethanol production processes, favorable features such as maximal energy saving, waste recycling, wastewater recycling, recovery of materials, and biorefinery approach are considered.
Highlights
➢Recent advances on the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass are reviewed. ➢Effects of pretreatment methods on lignocellulosic bioethanol production are critically compared. ➢Challenges/perspectives of pretreatment technology for cellulosic biofuels are presented and discussed
It should be noted that the findings summarized do not represent a strict comparison among pretreatment methods, as the yields correspond to different types of biomass feedstock and operating parameters
In a recent study conducted by Xiao and colleagues, they demonstrated that the addition of ethanol in the hydrothermal liquefaction process increased the penetration of solvent into the rigid structure of lignocellulose which subsequently led to high bio-oil yields (Wu et al, 2019)
Summary
Agriculture residues such as corn stalk, corn cobs, corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, rice stalk, and wheat stalk are potential sources for bioethanol production. These crops have a short-harvest rotation, allowing greater availability of these wastes throughout the year. Since agricultural residues offer a high level of availability and numerous harvesting cycles through only a single planting phase, the costs of managing these energy crops could be reduced. A reduction in cost by half could be attained here by using agricultural residues, rather than the energy crops Applying these wastes could contribute to a reduction in forest trees logging and the arable land used for herbaceous plants plantation like switchgrass, further promoting a greener environment. A total yield of 59 g/L of ethanol was produced after the two rounds of fermentation process
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