Anaerobic Biotechnology

The increasing attention on the utilization of the lignocellulosic biomass for the production of alternative fuels seeks the exploration of new strategies. One such area that needs to be explored in detail is the anaerobic biotechnology for second-generation biofuel production. Technology development in second-generation biofuel production started long back in 1940s. The current estimate of biomass is more than 200 billion tonnes, sufficient to meet almost 13% of the world energy demands. The different types of biomasses range from forest residues to agricultural waste, which includes C3 as well as C4 plants. However, accounting for the efficiencies of C3 versus the C4 plants, the latter presents a straight 60% significant increase. Anaerobic bacteria have been widely used as tools for the production of bioproducts at the industrial level. Anaerobic treatment process offers a lot of advantages during the production of value-added products. For instance, anaerobic treatment utilizes almost 90% of the organic matter for the production of methane, remaining 10% or less converted to biomass, while requiring no further treatment for the sludge other than dewatering, as it is already well stabilized. In this chapter, the focus has been emphasized upon the recent advances in anaerobic treatment technologies for the production of biofuels.