Role of compositional analysis of lignocellulosic biomass for efficient biofuel production

The consumption of fossil fuels has been increasing continuously around the globe and is the primary cause of increasing global warming and environmental pollution. However, in contrast to fossil fuels, biofuels appear to be a promising source of renewable energy for the production of fuels and energy-enriched chemicals generated by directly converting from biomass. To effectively produce fuels and chemicals from biomass resources, it is important to understand the composition of the feedstock materials and to have in-depth knowledge of their chemical constituents, which can be very useful in selecting the best feedstock for a particular conversion pathway, i.e., cellulose structure, degree of polymerization, hemicellulose composition, and the chemical nature and structure of lignin. Due to the complex and heterogeneous nature of biomass, the composition of different feedstocks can vary greatly and the variation not only limits different biomass types but there is also a lot of variation within a single feedstock. Therefore this chapter provides an insight into the importance of compositional analysis to improve biofuel production.