This document reviews cellulosic biomass as a source for biofuel production. It discusses how cellulosic materials like wood, grass, and waste can be used to produce ethanol through fermentation. While ethanol is currently mainly produced from corn and sugarcane, cellulosic biomass has advantages as it does not compete with food sources and can be supplied from low-cost waste materials. The conversion of cellulosic biomass into fuel involves breaking down the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions into simple sugars and then fermenting the sugars to produce ethanol or other alcohols.

1. Cellulosic Biomass – A Review
SREEREMYA.S
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
SREE NARAYANA GURU COLLEGE

2. • Biofuel technology is a rising field in which
various researches are carrying out. With
advancements in this technology, along with the
burgeoning populations, the extreme necessities
of human race have to be fulfilled. In the current
work among the biofuel technology biogas
production and biodiesel synthesis are the two
fields which had typically gained momentum.

3. •
• INTRODUCTION
• Several countries have started new alternatives for gasoline from
renewable feedstocks. In the North American hemisphere,
bioethanol has been extracted from starch sources majorly from
corn while in the South American hemisphere, biofuel has been
largely provided from sugars including sugarcane and sugar beets
(Chipeta et al., 2008) [1]. While European countries are strategizing
extensive efforts to aggrandize their 5% worldwide bioethanol
production, biodiesel produced in Europe primarily in France and
Germany remains by far more substantial and accounts for
approximately 54% of the global production mainly because of the
rising significance of diesel engines and feedstock opportunity costs
(Gomathi et al., 2009) [2].

4. • Most of the remaining countries in the world
collectively account for approximately 5% of
the global bioethanol synthesis, China,
Thailand as well as India are continuing to
invest substantially in agricultural
biotechnology and persist as potential biofuel
producers (Holt, 1998) [3]. In the US, biofuel-
derived from corn has been one of the
primary raw materials for bioethanol
production.

5. • There are ethical concerns about the use of food as
fuel raw materials have encouraged research efforts to
be more focused on the potential of inedible feedstock
alternatives. Lignocellulosic biomass materials
encompass a substantial renewable substrate for
bioethanol production that do not compete with food
production and animal feed (Sreeremya et al., 2014)
[4]. These cellulosic materials also contribute to
environmental sustainability. Furthermore,
lignocellulosic biomass can be supplied on a large-scale
basis from different low-cost raw materials such as
municipal and industrial wastes, wood and agricultural
residues (Sreeremya et al., 2016) [5]

6. • FUEL ETHANOL FROM CELLULOSIC BIOMASS
• Fuel ethanol is currently produced from sugar cane in
Brazil and from corn and other starch rich grains in the
United States, ethanol can be synthesized from
cellulosic materials such as wood, grass, and wastes.
The technology for ethanol production from cellulosic
materials is basically different from that for production
from food crops. Failure to appreciate this difference
has resulted in difference in opinion about the
potential of ethanol as a large-scale transportation
fuel.

7. • ETHANOL AS A FUEL
• Fuel ethanol synthesis by fermentation of starch crops is
about 0.8 billion gallons (–0.06 quad), with ethanol selling
for about $1.20 per gallon. The effective price to the
blender is lowered by more than $0.50 per gallon by federal
and state tax incentives, without which fuel ethanol would
not now be cost competitive. Low-level ethanol-gasoline
blends, comprising predominantly of gasoline, may use
ethanol directly or indirectly, the latter in the form of ethyl
tert-butyl ether. Ethanol may be availed as a primary fuel
either in neat (unblended) form or with small amounts of
gasoline. E1oo and E85 refer to neat ethanol and an 85%
ethanol-15% gasoline blend, respectively; similar terms are
availed for methanol.

8. • OVERVIEW OF THE CONVERSION OF BIOMASS TO FUEL
• Cellulosic biomass is a wide milieu, there are different source of
cellulosic biomass which includes termite soil, termite gut, fungus
isolated from termite soil, other substrates like sugarcane molasses,
beet molasses, etc. (Saravanakumari et al., 2014) [7]. Action of
microorganisms and enzymes on biological sources can pave to the
synthesis of mostly ethanol and, less commonly, propanol and
butanol. These agents carry out the fermentation of sugar, starch,
hemicellulose, or cellulose, with cellulose fermentation being the
most difficult. Biobutanol, which is also named biogasoline, is often
claimed to provide a direct replacement for gasoline, because it can
be availed directly in a gasoline engine similarly to the way in which
biodiesel can be used in diesel engines.

9. REFERENCE
•
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