Advancing Sustainable Biofuel Production from Agricultural Residues: A Comprehensive Mini-Review

Abstract

Fossil fuels widely satisfy the world's energy demands; however, they are absolutely unsustainable. Rational energy management is therefore one of humanity's greatest challenges in the 21st century. The sustainable resources of energy are speculated to minimize the global environmental challenges and consequences concerning the air and water quality, greenhouse effect, acid rain, etc. Biofuels-widely regarded as "fuel of future"- are a type of sustainable fuel, extracted immediately from living matter that is most likely produced over and again. Biofuels are majorly categorized into four groups based on the types of biomasses utilized as their raw material that including food crops, agricultural and industrial wastes and algae. A significant portion of lignocellulosic biomass consists of agricultural residues, presenting an opportunity to use them as a feedstock for generating biofuels. Agricultural wastes encompass more than just residues from cultivation; they also comprise wastes generated during the processing of agricultural products, livestock management, and distribution of fruits and vegetables. This review highlights the use of agricultural residues for the production of various types of Biofuels. Agricultural residues can be pretreated and treated through a myriad number of methods, for instance, acid catalysis, anaerobic digestion, hydrothermal carbonization, simultaneous saccharification, transesterification and pyrolysis; for the production of biodiesel, biogas, hydro-char, syngas and bioethanol. Each of these methods has several benefits and drawbacks since they are all conditional on some factors. Furthermore, the following study also mentions the advantages and disadvantages of biofuel production and usage.