ABSTRACT
BRUNO BENOLIEL, FERNANDO ARARIPE GONÇALVES TORRES, AND LIDIA MARIA PEPE DE MORAES
8.1 INTRODUCTION
Lignocellulosic residues derived from different agro-industrial activities represent a massive source of raw material for the production of fuels, chemical feedstock, foods and livestock feeds (Kumar et al. 2008). Brazil is a major producer of renewable feedstock including sugarcane which is essentially used for sugar and fuel ethanol production. In 2010, sugarcane production reached ~717.5 million tons (FAOSTAT 2012). A significant fraction of this biomass goes to industries for steam and electricity generation. The remaining fraction represents the ideal feedstock for the genera-
tion of high-value commodities as second-generation ethanol (Canilha et al. 2012).
