The development of renewable and sustainable lignocellulosic biofuels is
currently receiving worldwide attention and investment. Despite decades
of research, there remain significant challenges to be overcome before
these biofuels can be produced in large volumes at competitive prices.
One obstacle is the lack of efficient and affordable catalytic systems
to dissolve and hydrolyze polysaccharides into sugars. These sugars are
then fed to microrganisms and fermented into biofuels. The price of
these catalysts, be they biological, thermochemical, or chemical in
nature, represent one of the largest costs in the conversion process.
There are a number of catalytic schemes, each with their own advantages
and disadvantages, available. This book presents a general yet
substantial review of the most promising processes and the spectrum of
biomass pretreatment, enzymes, chemical catalysts, and hybrid approaches
of hydrolyzing biomass into fermentable sugars. It is the only currently
available book that compares the biochemical, chemical, and
thermochemical conversion processes to biofuel production.