Lignocellulosic biomass

Overcoming this recalcitrance to produce useful, high value products requires a combination of heat, chemicals, enzymes, and microorganisms.

Waste biomass is produced as a low value byproduct of various industrial sectors such as agriculture (corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, straw etc.)

The premier energy crop is sugarcane, which is a source of the readily fermentable sucrose and the lignocellulosic by-product bagasse.

[13] Through the pulp process most of the lignin is removed and discharged as waste material in the form of effluent/wastewater before then being used as low-value fuel to generate electricity and heat.

Lignocellulose has evolved to resist degradation and to confer hydrolytic stability and structural robustness to the cell walls of the plants.

This robustness or "recalcitrance" is attributable to the crosslinking between the polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) and the lignin via ester and ether linkages.

A large sector of research into the exploitation of lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock for bio-ethanol focuses particularly on the fungus Trichoderma reesei, known for its cellulolytic abilities.

Multiple avenues are being explored including the design of an optimised cocktail of cellulases and hemicellulases isolated from T. reesei, as well as genetic-engineering-based strain improvement to allow the fungus to simply be placed in the presence of lignocellulosic biomass and break down the matter into D-glucose monomers.

[20] Biocomposites produced with lignocellulosic biomass as an alternative to conventional materials, are attracting attention because they are renewable and cheaper but also because they fit perfectly into the policy of the "cascade utilization" of the resources.