Page 291 - Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts

Effective utilization of sugarcane 12

trash for energy production

1
1
G. Karthiga Devi , K. Vignesh and S. Chozhavendhan 2
1 2
Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, Vivekanandha College of
Engineering for Women (Autonomous), Tiruchengode, India

12.1 Introduction

In recent years, there is a steep change in the climatic conditions which creates
environmental concerns globally. This leads to the development of bio-based econ-
omy in which the biorefineries are identified as key pathways for the production of
biofuels and chemicals. Biorefineries as viable platforms have been initiated world-
wide to recuperate the scarcity of fossil fuels. This offers the advantage of utiliza-
tion of variety of renewable biomass sources, especially agro-wastes generated
through cultivation and processing of crops. Among the Indian crop varieties, resi-
dues of millets and pulses hold the major fraction of agro-waste production. It is
crucial to understand the physicochemical characteristics of agro-wastes to facilitate
the processing and conversion of waste to value-added products. Agro-wastes
mainly contain lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose as target components. There is
an increasing attention toward the lignocellulose biomass due to its widespread
availability.
The global trend is toward the increased use of renewable feedstocks, especially
sugarcane as the crop has become more significant. Sugarcane trash is one of the
most abundantly used feasible feedstocks for second-generation fuel production
according to US Department of Energy (2016). A recent study on techno-economic
and life cycle assessment showed sugar trash as important source of lignocellulose
conversion to biofuels and biochemicals such as ethanol, lactic acid, furfural, buta-
nol, methanol, with the consecutive production of electricity (Farzad et al., 2017).
The biomass feedstock obtained as a result of crop harvest showed high potential
for energy production through conversion technologies.

12.1.1 Waste: a sustainable source of energy
Due to the rising population, there is a high energy demand and growing awareness
of environmental protection; there is a need to produce chemicals from wastes
become apparent. Wastes can be categorized into different types based on their ori-
gin, and all the wastes cannot be transformed to biorefineries due to their complex
physiochemical properties.
Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818996-2.00012-0
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.