Bio-Processing: Biomass to Commercial Alcohol

This chapter emphasizes on the conversion of agro-waste-based biomass into commercial alcohol/ethanol—almost all suitable process and possibilities are covered. A huge amount of agricultural waste is generated during harvesting, post-harvest handling, and processing that can be converted into various valuable products according to their compositional properties. Agro-waste may be from fresh fruits and vegetable residues like stems, leaves, outer skin, and rind, different parts of cereal and pulses crops like broken and damaged grains, husk and so on. Current trends and possibilities of research on ethanol or alcohol production from agro-waste-based biomass is discussed in this chapter; the most important factors and different types of pretreatments and methods that are required to achieve the best yield of ethanol/alcohol are also presented. The significance of the process, the incorporation of various parameters to make biomass conversion and fermentation processes easier to get improved ethanol production and the strategies for the selection of suitable microbes and culture are also highlighted. Other processes such as saccharification, co-fermentation, and bio-processing steps are mentioned. The challenges associated with the conversion of agro-waste-based biomass into alcohol are highlighted. Due to the adverse effects of these waste materials and their disposal mechanisms on environment and health, it is realized that it can be utilized as a potential alternative and renewable source of green energy. Production of bioethanol for biofuel is currently a widely used and most important process. Commercial production of alcohol for industrial, pharmaceutical and food beverages purposes is also a good opportunity; this may be the best way to utilize sugar- and starch-containing agro-waste which is generally discarded from the fresh fruit and vegetable markets and processing industries. Lot of research work has been done and processes are developed by using biological cultures; these techniques are economic and easier to conduct. The food processing industries like sugar industry, fruit, and vegetable industry have a large amount of waste which generates a large amount of biomass residues with fermentable sugars and starch. Agro-waste like fruit peel, stems, leaves, pulp, seed, and fruit rinds are rich sources of polysaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and starch, which can be commercially used as a raw material for alcohol production. In this chapter, emphasis is given on the selection of biomass, use of microbial strains and steps involved in the production of alcohol from agro-waste biomass.