A Review on 1^st and 2^nd Generation Bioethanol Production-Recent Progress

Abstract

Today’s society is based on the use of fossil resources for transportation fuels. The result of unlimited consumption of fossil fuels is a severe depletion of the natural reserves and damage to the environment. Depleting fossil reserves and increasing demand for energy together with environmental concerns have motivated researchers towards the development of alternative fuels which are eco-friendly, renewable and economical. Bioethanol is one such dominant global renewable transport biofuel which can readily substitute fossil fuels. Conventionally, bioethanol has been produced from sucrose and starch rich feedstocks (edible agricultural crops and products) known as 1st generation bioethanol; however this substrate conflicts with food and feed production. As an alternative to 1st generation bioethanol, currently there is much focus on advancing a cellulosic bioethanol concept that utilizes lignocellulosic residues from agricultural crops and residues (such as bagasse, straw, stover, stems, leaves and deoiled seed residues). Efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into bioethanol remains an area of active research in terms of pretreatment of the biomass to fractionate its constituents (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin), breakdown of cellulose and hemicellulose into hexose and pentose sugars and co-fermentation of the sugars to ethanol. The present review discusses research progress in bioethanol production from sucrose, starch and cellulosic feedstocks. Development of efficient technology to convert lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars and optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis using on-site/ in-house enzyme preparation are the key areas of development in lignocellulosic bioethanol production. Moreover, finding efficient fermenting microorganisms which can utilize pentose and hexose sugars in their metabolism to produce ethanol together with minimum foam and glycerol formation is also an important parameter in fermentation. Research has been focusing on the application of genetically modified strains, thermoanaerobes and mixed cultures of different strains in bioethanol production from sucrose, starch and lignocellulosic feedstocks.