Essay Example on Biofuels which are the renewable energy sources

Due to the depletion of fossil fuel and energy crises, there was a need to produce alternative energy source which would be beneficial and cost-effective, for that purpose biotechnologist pay attention on the production of Biofuels which are the renewable energy sources. Biofuels are products that can be processed into liquid form fuels for either transport or ignition purposes. Bioethanol is produced from agricultural products including starchy and cereal crops like sugarcane, corn, beets, wheat, and sorghum. Biodiesel is made from oil or tree seeds, like rapeseed, sunflower, soya, palm coconut or jatropha Online 2010. Worldwide fuel consumption has increased 17 fold in the last few century and emissions of CO2 Sox and NOx from fossil fuel, ignition are primary causes of atmospheric pollution. Non-renewable energy sources i.e fossil fuels represent the most utilized forms of energy today and is predicted to estimate that at the present rate of production fossil fuels would be exhausted in the next century. Hence there is a need to develop and implement reasonable technologies to produce alternative renewable energy and feedstock.

Today many of the technologies use to produce alternative fuels such as bioethanol R Kumar Tabatabaei Karimi Sárvári Horváth 2016. Bioethanol is the most common biofuel used in transport. Which is alternate of petrol Biofuels are normally referred to as first, second or third-generation biofuels. First-generation biofuels include well confirmed or traditional technologies to produce bioethanol from sugar and starch crops, biodiesel from oil crops and animal fats and biomethane produced by anaerobic digestion Muktham Bhargava Bankupalli Ball 2016. Second-generation biofuels comprise a broad range of biofuels produced from feedstock that is not used as food or feed e.g lignocellulosic materials like short rotation, forestry or coppice the organic part of trash or garbage and forest and agricultural residues. They may also include bioethanol and biodiesel produced by standard technologies, but based on novel starch or energy crops such as jatropha. The hydrotreatment of vegetable oils animal fats or waste cooking oils has also been gaining ground as a solution to the immense pressure to find alternatives forms of fossil fuels for transport Eisentraut 2010.

Third-generation biofuels generally include biofuel production routes which are in the earlier stages of research and underdevelopment or are significantly further from commercialization e.g biofuels from algae hydrogen, from biomass etc Advanced Hardwood Biofuels NW 2014.

Second-generation biofuels are more efficient and cost-effective so there is much more use and production of the second generation of biofuel than the first generation Westman Wang Novy Franzén 2017. Therefore, the development of cost-effective technologies for fuel ethanol production is more important for many research centers. Universities and private Sectors and even for different governments. Process engineering applied to the production of fuel ethanol includes the design of new innovative or unusual process configurations focused at reducing ethanol production costs Dufey 2006. Bioethanol is mainly produced from the fermentation of sugar-containing materials such as molasses sugarcane, cane juice or cane syrup, cereal crops, sugar beet and sweet sorghum. New biotechnological developments have led to an increased focus on the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass as a resource to produce liquid fuels and other chemicals. The main challenge in the conversion of biomass into ethanol is the pretreatment steps.


Due to the structure of the lignocellulosic, complex, the pretreatment is required for its degradation the removal of lignin, the partial or total hydrolysis of the hemicellulose and the decrease in the fraction of crystalline cellulose related to the amorphous cellulose, the most viable form for the subsequent hydrolysis step. In this step, the cellulose undergoes enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain glucose that is transformed into ethanol by process microorganisms. Eventually, the sugars released during the hydrolysis of hemicellulose can be converted into ethanol as well. Industrially the pretreated material is mainly thought to be hydrolyzed and fermented in two different steps, separate hydrolysis and fermentation SHF Mohr Raman 2013 or in one single step simultaneous saccharification and fermentation SSF Axelsson 2011. A few microbial species such as Neurospora Monilia Paecilomyces and Fusarium sp have been reported to hold the ability to ferment cellulose directly to ethanol. Fossil fuel vs Biofuel. Any class of hydrocarbon containing materials of biological emergence present within the earth's crust that can be used as an energy source known as fossil fuel. It comprises petroleum natural gas coal, oil shales, tar sands, and heavy oil. All contain carbon and formed due to geological processes acting on the remainder of organic matter produced by photosynthesis. Propane and kerosene are also used as fuel Due to its worldwide consumption, there is always a fear for its depletion because this is the nonrenewable energy source and it also contains many health environmental and economic effects. Rainey Vaganay MacIntyre 2016 as externalities the hidden cost of fossil fuel. When fossil fuels are burned then releases remarkable quantities of carbon dioxide cause climate change. Combustion also discharges volume of pollutants Perera 2017 which can cause a variety of illnesses. The most extensive consequences are noted below.

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