ABSTRACT
Energy production and its use directed towards sustainability, environmental quality and safety is among the great challenges at the present time. In recent years, there have been great incentives to study alternative fuels that are not derived from oil. New technologies are being developed to answer this challenge in several centers of biotechnological research. In particular, the production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic residues-a promising alternative source of fuel production-is receiving increasing attention. The amount of energy that originates from the sun is stored as carbon via photosynthesis by plants (2.0 × 1018 Btu/year) is approximately 10 times higher than the annual energy demand worldwide (Kumar et al. 2008).
