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Sustainable Production of Chemicals and Energy Fuel Precursors from Lignocellulosic Fractions

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Biofuels

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Abstract

From time immemorial, bioprocessing of lignocelluloses via chemical catalysis has been an impressive methodology of numerous value added commodities and energy fuel precursors (drop-in-fuel) synthesis. The most common technique for biomass fragmentation is catalytic hydrolysis using various acid catalysts covering inorganic or organic liquid acids as well as solid acids (heterogeneous). Most research in the past decade has been focused on cost-effective production of such biomass derived commodities with the aim of their commercialization. Till date, in order to improve final product yields and minimize production costs, various improvised production schemes have been developed like pretreatment methods for improved saccharification and displacement and/or reconstruction of recalcitrant biomass constituents, such as lignin to improve accessibility, employing multi-functional catalysts to promote single stage transformations, continuous extraction of desired product by use of specific solvents to improve product stability as well as to inhibit by-product formation, integration of physical processes for example microwave and ultrasonic irradiation resulting in decreased residence time, etc. With these technological advancements, researchers have overcome substantial limitations associated with lignocellulose transformation including mass-transfer hindrances and expensive downstream processing; as a result a wide array of commercially important chemicals and fuel precursors have been synthesised. The chapter provides an account of value addition to biomass via chemical catalysis of cellulosic, hemicellulosic and lignin fractions towards product chemicals synthesis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, India for their consistent financial support. Authors BA and SE thank Department of Science and Technology (DST-SERB), New Delhi for providing financial assistance through Grant No. PDF/2015/000285 and Grant No. YSS/2014/000031, respectively.

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Agarwal, B., Ahluwalia, V., Pandey, A., Sangwan, R.S., Elumalai, S. (2017). Sustainable Production of Chemicals and Energy Fuel Precursors from Lignocellulosic Fractions. In: Agarwal, A., Agarwal, R., Gupta, T., Gurjar, B. (eds) Biofuels. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3791-7_2

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