Sugarcane bagasse

Abstract

Abstact: Advances in industrial biotechnology offer potential opportunities for economic utilization of agro-industrial residues. Sugarcane bagasse is the major by-product of the sugar cane industry. It contains about 50% cellulose, 25% hemicellulose and 25% lignin. Due to its abundant availability, it can serve as an ideal substrate for microbial processes for the production of value-added products such as protein enriched animal feed, enzymes, amino acids, organic acids and compounds of pharmaceutical importance etc. Since untreated bagasse is degraded very slowly by micro-organisms, a pre-treatment step may be useful for improved substrate utilization. This chapter reviews the developments on processes and products developed for the value-addition of sugarcane bagasse through the biotechnological means and it also discuss about various pre-treatment methods for efficient utilization of this substrate for the production of fermentable sugars. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.