Biofuels from Renewable Biomass Resources: An Overview of Technologies for Production, Environmental and Economic Impacts

Abstract

In recent years, there is a great deal of social obligation involve with scientists to common people that a sustainable chemical processes having industrial importance which is associated with greener concept and environmentally benign methodology is the need of the hour. This trends of technology driven greener process will continues to roll on for next few decades. With this aspects in mind, biomass, a sustainable alternative feedstock, can be processed into liquid and solid fuels via thermal, light-induced, catalytic and bio-based techniques. Conversion of biomass materials into value added products and energy can address environmental sustainability and recycling of waste materials. Utilization of bio-based energy has not been explored fully. We continue to rely on fossil fuels, nuclear energy and hydroelectricity to meet our energy demands. Alcohols and its derivatives are the important source of bioenergy that are hidden in biomass. In this context, the production of alcohols or esters is an extremely important industrial process as they are useful as precursors, reagents, solvents or additives in perfumes, essential oils, food flavorings, cosmetics, etc. Even though there have been numerous methods available for the production of alcohols and esters, designing non-hazardous methods to generate chemical products that limit the usage of hazardous substances is highly required. The present chapter aims at the analysis of various green methods reported for the production of alcohols and esters from renewable energy sources. Also provide a broad overview of the environmental and economic impacts of biofuels. The major environmental impacts are conceived under two headings, viz. direct emissions those that are expelled during the biofuels production and consumption and indirect emissions those that are associated with their land use.