Recent advances in lignocellulosic and algal biomass pretreatment and its biorefinery approaches for biochemicals and bioenergy conversion. (January 2023) - Zhang, Yue
Graphical abstract: Highlights: Lignocellulosic and algal biomass are potential sources of bioenergy production. Application of suitable pretreatment methods can improve the efficiency of biorefinery. LCA provides a way to quantify the economic and environmental viability of biorefinery. Products based on biomasses have huge market opportunities for commercialization. Abstract: As the global demand for sustainable energy increases, lignocellulosic (such as agricultural residues, forest biomass, municipal waste, and dedicated energy crops) and algal (including macroalgae and microalgae) biomass have attracted considerable attention, because of their high availability of carbohydrates. This is a potential feedstock to produce biochemical and bioenergy. Pretreatment of biomass can disrupt their complex structure, increasing conversion efficiency and product yield. Therefore, this review comprehensively discusses recent advances in different pretreatments (physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological pretreatments) for lignocellulosic and algal biomass and their biorefining methods. Life cycle assessment (LCA) which enables the quantification of the environmental impact assessment of a biorefinery also be introduced. Biorefinery processes such as raw material acquisition, extraction, production, waste accumulation, and waste conversion are all monitored under this concept. Nevertheless, there still exist some techno-economic barriers during biorefinery and extensive research is still needed to develop cost-effective processes.