ABSTRACT
The constantly growing demand for energy is primarily fulfilled from fossil sources, which share around 88% of total energy. Conversely, total demand for energy is likely to increase by 26% for the next 20 years because of the fast growth of population and industries, especially automobiles. Hence, it is concerning and alarming that immense energy demands will be made in the near future with limited non-renewable resources, primarily fossil fuels. Additionally, there has been an increasing responsiveness to global warming, environmental pollution, lascivious usage of fossil fuels, and increasing crude oil prices. A variety of biomasses have been investigated for their feasibility as raw materials for the production of various biofuels. These biomasses can be obtained from various resources, such as forest, agricultural, and marine. Based on various recent literatures, it can be concluded that the economical production of biofuels is achievable through proper selection of biomass. Bioethanol is one of the promising alternatives for petroleum-based fuels. The recovery of bioethanol by conventional processes suffers from the major disadvantage of low concentration due to product inhibition. Membrane processes play a significant role in the separation industry, even in biological processes. The pervaporation in situ or ex situ coupled with bioethanol production may increase bioethanol concentration and bioreactor productivity. It was successfully applied for the production and separation of bioethanol. In the present chapter, the basic aspects of bioethanol, its production and separation, and the basic concept of pervaporation and its application to the bioethanol process have been systematically discussed. Various pervaporation approaches for improving production and separation of bioethanol have also been presented.
