Pretreatment techniques for biofuels and biorefineries

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This book comprises 19 chapters authored by leading experts in biomass pretreatment methods. It thoroughly examines various biomass types, including molasses, sugar beet pulp, cheese whey, sugarcane residues, palm waste, vegetable oil, straws, stalks, and wood. The text delves into numerous pretreatment approaches—physical, thermal, chemical, physicochemical, and biological—and their roles in producing biofuels and chemicals like sugars, ethanol, extracellular polysaccharides, biodiesel, gas, and oil. Traditional methods such as steam, hot-water, hydrothermal, diluted-acid, organosolv, ozonolysis, sulfite, milling, fungal and bacterial, microwave, ultrasonic, plasma, torrefaction, pelletization, gasification (including biogas), and liquefaction are discussed alongside novel techniques like nano and solid catalysts, organic electrolyte solutions, and ionic liquids. The book reviews cutting-edge research and offers insights into future developments in biomass pretreatment for biofuels, particularly in biotechnology, microbiology, chemistry, materials science, and engineering. It serves as a systematic introduction to pretreatment techniques and is a valuable resource for students, researchers, academicians, and industrialists in biorefineries. Zhen Fang, a Professor of Bioenergy and leader of the biomass group at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, contributes his expertise to this comprehensive work.