Main description:

The concerns relating to global warming, climate change, and increasing energy demands have led to significant research towards the development of alternative energy to substitute the fossil energy sources. Biomass-based energy or biofuels are highly promising due to many perceptible environmental and socio-economic advantages. Cutting-edge academic research and advanced industrial product development have created tremendous scope for the implementation of biofuels at a global scale to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and supplement the escalating energy demands. The prime focus of this book is to provide an overview of the different technologies utilized to harness the chemical energy from plant-based non-edible biomass and other organic wastes in the form of solid, liquid, and gaseous biofuels. The opportunities and challenges of different biomass conversion technologies, especially biomass-to-liquid, biomass-to-gas and gas-to-liquid routes, as well as biomass pretreatments, densification, anaerobic digestion, reforming, transesterification, supercritical fluid extraction, microalgal carbon sequestration, life-cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis have been comprehensively discussed in this book. This book is an amalgamation of fifteen different chapters each with distinctive investigations and a collective focus relating to the transition from fossil fuels towards carbon-neutral biofuels. This book serves as a benchmark for academic and industrial researchers involved in exploring the true potentials of plant residues and waste organic matter to produce alternative renewable fuels. To realize the real promises of bioenergy, this book attempts to assess the biorefining approaches, biofuel production and application, and environmental sustainability.

Contents:

Module 1._Acknowledgements.- Module 2_Preface.- Module 3_Foreword by Editor.- Module 4_List of abbreviations.- Module 5_Names and affiliations of contributors.- Module 6_Introduction to biomass and biofuels.- Chapter 1. An extensive introduction to first, second and third generation biofuels.- Chapter 2. An overview on the accessibility of agricultural and forestry biomass for biorefining.- Chapter 3. Potential of algae and oilseed crops for generating future biofuels.- Chapter 4. Biomass pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis for cellulosic ethanol production.- Module 7_ Biomass conversion technologies.- Chapter 5. Fungal bioconversion technologies for efficient production of fuels and chemicals from agricultural crop residues.- Chapter 6. Recent developments in acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation and product recovery.- Chapter 7. Unit operation, optimization and kinetics of consolidated bioprocessing for higher alcohol synthesis.- Chapter 8. Genetic engineering of microorganisms for efficient biofuel production.- Chapter 9. An overview on biomass gasification for generation of synthesis gas.- Chapter 10. A review on pyrolysis of biomass and the impacts of operating conditions on product yield, quality and upgrading.- Chapter 11. Catalytic cracking and transesterification of vegetable oil for biodiesel production.- Chapter 12. Current advancements, prospects and challenges in biomethanation.- Module 8_Energy storage, lifecycle assessment and socio-economic analysis.- Chapter 13. Current advances and applications in fuel cell research.- Chapter 14. Emission and fuel performance analyses of biodiesel and producer gas.- Chapter 15. Life-cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis for biomass conversion technologies.- Module 9_Appendices.- Module 10_Author Index.- Module 11_Subject index.