ABSTRACT
Crude oil-based gasoline fuels have been widely used in transportation sector since the 1920s. However, there have been great public concerns over adverse environmental and human impact of these fuels. Hence, biomass-based bioethanol fuels have increasingly been used in blending gasoline fuels, in fuel cells, and in biochemical and biohydrogen fuel production in a biorefinery context. However, it is necessary to pretreat biomass to enhance yield of bioethanol prior to bioethanol fuel production from feedstocks through hydrolysis of biomass and fermentation of resulting hydrolysates. Europe has been one of the most prolific producers engaged in bioethanol fuel research, producing 28% of the global research output in this field. European research in the field of bioethanol fuels has intensified in this context in the key research fronts of production of bioethanol fuels, utilization of bioethanol fuels, and, to a lesser extent, evaluation of bioethanol fuels. For the first research front, pretreatment of feedstocks and, to a lesser extent, hydrolysis of feedstocks, fermentation of hydrolysates, production of bioethanol fuels are the key research areas, while for the second research front, utilization of bioethanol fuels in fuel cells and bioethanol-based biohydrogen fuels are the key research areas. Research in this field has also intensified for feedstocks of wood biomass, bioethanol fuels, cellulose, lignocellulosic biomass at large, starch feedstock residues, lignin, sugars, and biomass at large. However, it is essential to develop efficient incentive structures for the primary stakeholders to enhance research in this field. Although there has been a number of review papers on bioethanol fuels, there has been no review of the 25 most-cited articles in this field. Thus, this book chapter presents a review of these 25 most-cited articles. Then, it discusses key findings of these highly influential papers and comments on future research priorities in this field.
