ABSTRACT
The last decade has witnessed a tremendous impetus on biofuel research due to the irreversible depletion of fossil fuels and the escalating emissions of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Biofuels are subdivided into two major liquid fuels, namely, bioethanol and biodiesel. The lignocellulosic crops like sugarcane and corn are fermented to produce bioethanol, whereas biodiesel, the other transportation fuel, is produced from various lipid-rich sources starting from many food materials ranging from vegetable oils to tiny microorganisms. Bioethanol is generally used in combination with gasoline and biodiesel is blended with diesel to open options for alternative fuel utilization in the transport sector. However, the main concern for the suitability of a biofuel product currently depends on two major factors, that is, the land use and appropriate biomass to fuel energy conversion (Kosinkova et al., 2015). Global biofuel production has been rapidly growing for the last few years, from 15 billion liters in 2000 to 110 billion liters in 2013, and has captured a share of 3.5% of the total transportation fuel in the world (REN21, 2015). We find that biofuels meet nearly one-fourth of the road transport fuel requirements in Brazil. Global biofuel production has been projected to be approximately 140 billion liters by the end of 2018.
