Understanding the dynamics of the microbial communities that, along with their secreted enzymes, are involved in the natural process of biomass composting may hold the key to breaking the major bottleneck in biomass-to-biofuels conversion technology, which is the still-costly deconstruction of polymeric biomass carbohydrates to fermentable sugars.
We propose an optimization model that enables the selection of biofuel conversion technologies, processing capacities and locations, and the logistics of transportation from the locations of forestry resources to the conversion sites and then to the final markets.
However given the growing outlook with advanced biofuel conversion technologies, such biomass sources might be of competing greater value if sold off the farm into the bioenergy feedstock stream.
The economics of biofuel production is highly dependent on feedstock cost and conversion technology [ 1, 6].
For example, the scale-up of fermentable corn biomass (grain) to ethanol production (1st generation biofuel) in the U.S. in recent years has been successful since the conversion technology and agricultural infrastructure has matured [ 9].
But not all of them improve on existing conversion technology.
The authors stressed that the country has very favorable conditions to develop new trends in biomass conversion technologies for biofuels and bio-based products.
Among the conversion technologies for the biofuel production from the micro algal biomass, thermochemical conversion is an enduring sustainable alternative path in the view of engineering as this process utilizes all kinds of the biochemical moieties from the micro algal biomass cellular constitution.
Up-to-date macroalgae conversion technologies for biochemicals and biofuels showed that molecular bioengineering would contribute to the success of macroalgae-based biorefinery.
Unlike the transition from a coal-based chemical industry to petrochemicals, where the availability of raw materials enabled the change [13], the biobased industry's evolution presents the challenge of finding/developing renewable raw materials that are suitable for economically feasible conversion technologies to bioproducts and biofuels.
This mini-review discusses a multi-stage biorefinery concept with the potential to convert waste produced at crop processing operations, such as coffee pulping stations, to valuable biofuels and bioproducts using biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies.
