ABSTRACT
Due to rapid population development and industrialization, energy consumption has seen a spurt on a global scale. Renewable energy resources have substituted fossil fuels to tackle the environmental problems including change in climate and global warming. Nowadays, biomass is found to be the most extensive form of sustainable energy and its utilization as an energy source becomes important due to the exhaustive consumption of crude oils. Globally, agricultural biomasses are generated in large amounts that can be converted into different forms of energy, i.e., combustible fuel, gaseous fuel (biodiesel), liquid fuels (bioethanol), and fuel pellets depending on the chemical and physical properties of biomass. Among agricultural biomasses, lignocellulosic wastes are an abundantly available renewable source and have a high potential to produce second-generation bioenergy. This chapter mainly focuses on the various sources of lignocellulosic wastes, and their composition and properties. Thereafter, the different conversion processes including physical, chemical, and biological for the transformation of biomass into energy along with their products are also reviewed in the present chapter.
