Page 40 - Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts

Bacterial production of fatty acid 2

and biodiesel: opportunity and
challenges

3
1
1
Manish Kumar 1,2 , Rashmi Rathour , Juhi Gupta , Ashok Pandey ,
4
Edgard Gnansounou and Indu Shekhar Thakur 1
1
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India,
2
Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group (BPE), IIC, ENAC, Station 18, Ecole
3
Polytechnique Fe ´de ´rale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, Centre for
Innovation and Translational Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research
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(CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, India, Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group, Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

2.1 Introduction

The increasing human population and their anthropogenic activities, such as land
use, deforestation, industrialization, transportation, solid waste generation, and
excess waste water generation, are changing the natural structure of the planet
Earth. Such activities lead to global climate shift, which is one of the leading envi-
ronmental issues faced by the world today (Kumar et al., 2018b). The population
explosion and changing lifestyle are building an extra pressure on the production
market to fulfill the demands and desire of society. The recent production and con-
sumption models largely rely on fossil-based resources, which are affecting the
environment and natural resources adversely and irreversibly (Bioways, 2017).
Considering these facts, world’s intellectual minds are taking significant steps to
transit from fossil-based economy to a futuristic more sustainable production econ-
omy based on plant and microbial biomass (Thakur et al., 2018). A significant fac-
tor governing an effective bio-based economy is the production of wide range of
biological materials and bioenergy to replace the fossil-derived equivalents.
Production of biomaterials from biomass (plant as well as microbial biomass) and
using municipal waste as feedstock has attracted worldwide attention due to their
biodegradability and low environmental impacts (Ngothai, 2017; Kumar et al.,
2016c; Kumar and Thakur, 2018).
The cost-effective production of biological materials is an emerging sector with
remarkable future prospects, providing many business opportunities (Luoma et al.,
2011). This framework leads us to the science of biorefinery (Clark et al., 2006).
Biorefinery concept has several applied definitions, but generally it is explained as
the production of a wide range of common commodities and energy by utilizing

Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818996-2.00002-8
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