Bioethanol production using lignocellulosic biomass - Review Part 2. Saccharification and fermentation of biomass for generating ethanol

Abstract

Bio-ethanol is the most potential next generation automotive fuel for reducing both consumption of crude oil and environmental pollution from renewable resources such as wood, forest residuals, agricultural leftovers and urban wastes. Lignocellulosic based materials can be broken down into individual sugars. Therefore, saccharification is one of the important steps for producing sugars, such as 6-C glucose, galactose, mannose and 5-C xylose, mannose and rhamnose. These sugars can be further broken down and fermented into ethanol. The main objective of this research is to study the feasibility and optimize saccharification and fermentation process for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to low cost bioethanol.