Page 244 - Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts

Sweet sorghum: a potential 10

resource for bioenergy
production

1
1
Balasubramanian Velmurugan , Madhuri Narra , Darshan M. Rudakiya 1
and Datta Madamwar 2
1
Bioconversion Technology Division, Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute,
2
Vallabh Vidyanagar, India, Post-Graduate Department of Biosciences, UGC-Centre of
Advanced Study, Satellite Campus, Sardar Patel University, Anand, India

10.1 Introduction

Fossil fuel is the primary source of energy that contributes around 80% 90% of
the total energy all over the world (Taha et al., 2016). These are nonrenewable,
capable of providing energy, and very fast depleting. They also emit harmful gases
on usage, which lead to adverse effects, that is, global warming, increased pollu-
tion, biodiversity loss, and climate change, which makes it questionable for further
usage (Nicoletti et al., 2015; Ramadhas, 2016). To overcome this problem, produc-
tion of biofuels from renewable biomass has been considered a viable option
(Ramadhas, 2016). The advantages of biofuels over fossil fuels are (1) feasible and
easy extraction from biomass, (2) sustainable as they possess biodegradation ability,
(3) combustion of biofuels is based on CO 2 cycle, and (4) environment friendly
(Demirbas, 2008). The distribution of biofuels in automobile market is growing
exponentially day by day due to its environmental advantages. As a result, it makes
a high impact on the growth of agriculture sector to produce biofuels and biopro-
ducts in a big way (Demirbas, 2008; Li et al., 2016a).
Biofuels, produced primarily from the biomass, are referred to solid, liquid, and
gaseous fuels. Biofuels are classified into first, second, and third-generation biofuels
based on the complex chemical structure of the biomass (Aro, 2016). The first-
generation fuels—biodiesel and vegetable oils—are mainly obtained from terrestrial
crops; the second-generation biofuels—bioethanol and biohydrogen—are produced
from agricultural residues and energy plants, whereas the third-generation biofuels—
algae, seaweeds, and cyanobacteria, which are attractive resources to produce bio-
fuels as they produce large biomass in a stipulated time period—do not require
fertile land for growth as required in the case of production of second-generation
biofuels (Alam et al., 2015; Aro, 2016; Devarajan et al., 2017; Rodionova et al.,
2017).
Biomass is considered a low-cost material energy storage device which, at any
point of time, could be used (Alam et al., 2015). Agricultural and forestry biomass
Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818996-2.00010-7
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.