Conventional biofuels, or first generation biofuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol are based on traditionally grown vegetable oil crops, sugar and starch crops, respectively.
Currently energy crops in Europe comprise mainly traditional food crops as rape seed and sugar or starch crops [ 61].
The cassava stem is found to be one of few crop residues containing starch (up to 42% of dry mass) that may be converted to fuel ethanol.
Due to its importance, crop plants producing starch in large quantities have been extensively researched.
Five plants, consisting of Arabidopsis thaliana, rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea may), castor bean (Ricinus communis), and potato (Solanum tuberosum), were used as templates based upon any of the following criteria: having well-defined genome information, being a starch crop, and being evolutionarily or physiologically close to cassava.
We focus on second generation, dedicated lignocellulosic crops, but where appropriate draw comparison with current first-generation oil and starch crops, often primarily grown for food.
A variety of plants can be grown for this purpose, including woody lignocellulosic crops (e.g., poplar, willow, and Eucalyptus), herbaceous lignocellulosic crops (e.g., switchgrass, Miscanthus), oil crops (e.g., rape seed, sunflower, and Jatropha), sugar crops (e.g., sugar cane, sugar beet), cereals (e.g., wheat, rye, and corn) and other starch crops (e.g., potato) [ 5,6,14,15].
Cassava ranks fifth among crops in global starch production.
Bioethanol production is calculated from putrescible wastes and starch crops, and biodiesel production from rapeseed, tallow, wood and waste paper.
The first generation of biofuels is ethanol derived from food crops rich in starch or biodiesel taken from waste animal fats such as cooking grease.
Bioethanol is also derived from biorenewable feedstocks, including sugar beet, starch crops such as maize, wood, wheat, corn, and other plant wastes through microbial strain and biological fermentation process.
