INTRODUCTION

Biofuels are fuels made from organic matter , which can be divided into three categories: First-generation biofuels are made largely from edible sugars and starches. Second-generation biofuels are made from nonedible plant materials (cellulosic material). Third-generation biofuels are made from algae and other microbes.

INTRODUCTION CONTD Biofuels are Renewable Advanced biofuels can offer environmental benefits such as lower carbon emissions and lower sulfur. Advanced biofuels could help meet the world's future energy needs.

FUEL FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTE Ethanol is a renewable energy source because plants use sunlight which cannot be depleted; and ethanol are produced by agricultural waste. Creation of ethanol starts with the use of starchy feedstock e.g sugar cane or maize (corn), as well as advances using cellulosic feedstock which can be used industrially to produce ethanol e.g switchgrass (a non food plant) and scrap wood.

PRODUCTION PROCESS

The basic steps for large scale production of ethanol are: Microbial (yeast) fermentation of sugars, Distillation and Dehydration

PRODUCTION PROCESS CONTD Prior to fermentation Some crops require saccharification or hydrolysis of carbohydrates such as cellulose and starch into sugars. Saccharification of cellulose is called cellulolysis Enzymes are used to convert starch into sugar.

STEP 1: FERMENTATION
1. Ethanol is produced by microbial fermentation of the sugar. By fermentation, the yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols, or Zymomonas mobilis is a bacterium belonging to the genus Zymomonas can also be used for bioethanol-production, which surpass yeast in some aspects. 2. Z. mobilis degrades sugars to pyruvate using the Entner-Doudoroff pathway. The pyruvate is then fermented to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as the only products (analogous to yeast).

STEP 2: DISTILLATION For the ethanol to be usable as a fuel, most of the water is removed by distillation, but the purity is limited to 9596% due to the formation of a lowboiling water-ethanol azeotrope with maximum (95.6% m/m (96.5% v/v) ethanol and 4.4% m/m (3.5% v/v) water).

STEP 3: DEHYDRATION
There are basically three dehydration processes from an azeotropic ethanol/water mixture. The first process, used in many early fuel ethanol plants, is called azeotropic distillation. When these components are added to the mixture, it forms a heterogeneous azeotropic mixture in vapor-liquid-liquid equilibrium, which when distilled produces anhydrous ethanol in the column bottom, and a vapor mixture of water, ethanol, and cyclohexane/benzene.

STEP 3: DEHYDRATION CONTD When condensed, this becomes a twophase liquid mixture. The heavier phase, poor in the entrainer (benzene or cyclohexane), is stripped of the entrainer and recycled to the feed, while the lighter phase together with condensate from the stripping is recycled to the second column. The last process uses molecular sieves to remove water from fuel ethanol.

PROCESS OF CELLULOSIC ETHANOL

Cellulosic resources are widespread and abundant; being abundant and outside the human food chain makes cellulosic materials relatively inexpensive feedstock for ethanol production.

Cellulosic materials are composed of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose which are sometimes called lignocellulosic materials.

CELLULOSIC ETHANOL PRODUCTION

ETHANOL- FROM CELLULOSE (EFC)

There are three types of EFC processes

Acid Hydrolysis: this is where dilute acid e.g sulphuric acid, is used to convert cellulosic materials to sugar, OR
Enzymatic Hydrolysis: enzymes naturally occuring in plant protein cause chemical reaction to occur which breakdown the crystalline structure of the linocellulose and remove lignin to expose hemicellulose and cellulose molecules Thermochemical: A microorganism that is capable of converting the synthesis gas( a mixture of hydrogen and carbon oxides) is introduced to bring about fermentation under specific process to yield ethanol.

FUEL FROM ACETIC ACID Methane, the chief of component natural gas, is produced in nature by the microbial decay of vegetation and animal waste in the absence of atmospheric oxygen. This process is termed anaerobic digestion. The production of methane from biomass has been suggested as a means of lessening our demand for natural gas and utilizing reservoirs of methane in the natural environment.

FUEL FROM ACETIC ACID CONTD

Methane fermentation is a versatile biotechnology capable of converting almost all types of polymeric materials to methane and carbon dioxide under anaerobic conditions It is achieved as a result of the consecutive biochemical breakdown of polymers in an environment in which a variety of microorganisms harmoniously grow and produce reduced end-products which include fermentative microbes (acidogens); hydrogenproducing, acetate-forming microbes (acetogens); and methane-producing microbes (methanogens).

STEP 1: HYDROLYSIS Polymeric materials such as lipids, carbohydrates etc. are hydrolyzed by extracellular hydrolases into primary monomeric units . Hydrolysis is carried out by bacteria from the group of relative anaerobes of genera: Streptococcus, Enterobacterium.

STEP 2: ACIDOGENESIS
Here acidifying bacteria convert water soluble chemical substances (usually the products from step 1) into short chain organic acids, alcohol, aldehydes, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. This process is bidirectional. It is divided into hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. The acid phase bacteria belonging to facultative anaerobes use oxygen accidentally introduced into the process, creating two favourable conditions for the development of obligatory anaerobes of the following genera: Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Clostridium, Micrococcus or Flavobacterium.

STEP 3: ACETOGENESIS
Conversion of the products of the acid phase (step 2) into acetate (acetic acid) and hydrogen by acetate bacteria. The genera of Syntrophomonas and Syntrophobacter are responsible for this phase.

STEP 4: METHANOGENESIS
Here there is production of methane by methanogens. Methane is produced from acetic acid, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, formate and methanol, methylamine or dimethyl sulphide produced in the previous phases. Microorganisms which facilitate the breakdown od acetic acid to methane are referred to as Methanogenic archeons: Methanothermobacter, Methanococcus, Methanobacterium

Summary of Microorganisms cooperation in organic matter degradation.

Microorganism

Electron Donor

Electron acceptor

Product

Reaction type

Fermentative Bacteria

Organic Carbon

Organic Carbon

CO2

Fermentation

Acid phase bacteria

Organic Carbon

Organic Carbon

H2

Acidogenesis

Acetogenic Bacteria

Organic Carbon/H2

CO2

CH3COOH

Acetogenesis

Methanogenic Bacteria

Organic Carbon/H2

CO2

CH4

Methanogenesis

REFERENCES
Chisti, Y. 2007. Biodiesel from microalgae. Biotechnol. Adv. 25:294-306. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2008. The state of food and agriculture. Biofuels: prospects, risks and opportunities. National Science Foundation. 2008. Breaking the chemical and engineering barrier to lignocellulosic biofuels: next generation hydrocarbon biorefineries. National Science Foundation. Chemical, Bioengineering Environmental and Transport systems division, Washington, D.C.

CONTD
Rogers P; Lee K, Skotnicki M, Tribe D (1982). Microbial reactions: Ethanol Production by Zymomonas mobilis. New York: Spinger-Verlag. pp. 3784. ISBN 978-3-540-11698-1.

^ Swings, J; De Ley, J (1977 Mar). "The biology of Zymomonas". Bacteriological reviews 41 (1): 146. PMID 16585 Ziemiski, K. & Frc, M. 2012 Methane fermentation process as anaerobic digestion of biomass: Transformations, stages and microorganisms. Academic Journals Vol. 11(18), pp. 4127-4139