Biobutanol Production from Agricultural Biomass

Abstract

Biobutanol, an alcoholic biofuel with 4-carbon atoms is one of the potential biofuels to replace petrol fuel. Biobutanol has higher density, higher energy content, and less corrosive as compared to bioethanol. Biobutanol also has similar characteristic as gasoline, therefore, it can be distributed in the current storage and pipeline system and used in a car’s engine without any modifications. Biobutanol can be produced through fermentation process by commonly used microorganism, Clostridium sp. This species can consume both hexose and pentose sugars that can be derived from agricultural biomass. Agricultural biomass is considered as the most abundant material that can be continuously supplied as substrate for fermentation. This material is composed of cellulose and hemicellulose as polysaccharide building blocks made of sugar and protected by the lignin made of various types of phenolic components. The arrangement of these components in plant cell wall makes the plant material difficult to be degraded. Therefore, various technologies have been developed in order to utilize agricultural biomass as substrate for fermentation. In this chapter, how agricultural biomass is converted into biobutanol will be presented and discussed. The processes involved include preparation of the substrate and medium formulation, microorganism and inoculum preparation, fermentation operation, and the recovery process.