ABSTRACT
If biofuels can be successfully harnessed then there is the potential for a global renaissance in the energy sector, with benefit for all. There are three main biofuel technologies, each derived from various biomasses: bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas. Biodiesel and bioethanol are the primary biofuels and have each experienced tremendous development in terms of industrial-scale production and quality. As feedstocks typically account for greater than one-third of the production costs, they are crucial in maximizing bioethanol yield. As for bioethanol, the enzymatic processing of biodiesel addresses many of the problems associated with chemical processing. It requires only moderate operating conditions and yields a high-quality product with a high level of conversion, and life-cycle assessment of enzymatic biodiesel production has more favourable environmental consequences in abiotic depletion, global warming, ozone layer depletion, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidation, acidification and eutrophication.
