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Microbial Enzyme Systems in the Production of Second Generation Bioethanol

This version is not peer-reviewed.

Submitted:

18 December 2022

Posted:

20 December 2022

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Abstract
The primary contributor to global warming has been the careless usage of fossil fuels. Urbanization's threat to the depletion of these resources has made it necessary to find alternatives due to the rising demand. Four different forms of biofuels are now available and constitute a possible replacement for fossil fuels. The first generation of biofuels is generated from the edible portion of biomass, the second generation is made from the non-edible portion of biomass, the third generation is made from algal biomass, and the fourth generation is made using molecular biology to improve the algal strain. Second generation biofuels are extremely important because they are derived from non-edible biomass, such as agricultural and agro-industrial wastes rich in cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and starch impregnated with lignin, and are hydrolyzed after delignification by physio-chemical or biological pretreatments using ligninases. There has been a lot of research on their production using chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis, but it has not been economically viable in comparison to first generation biofuels due to the formation of several inhibitors with chemical hydrolysis and the high cost of the enzymes. Furthermore, the need for multiple enzymes due to the various types of carbohydrates in the feedstocks makes the enzymatic process too expensive. This article examines the enzymes involved in the hydrolysis of feedstocks for the production of second generation bioethanol, a highly acceptable biofuel.
Keywords: 
Subject: 
Biology and Life Sciences  -   Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
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