Paper Title
Strategies for Biomass Degradation: A Review
Abstract
The agricultural waste comprises of lignocellulose which is a natural source of organic matter. Breakdown of
biomass to form monomeric subunits will be a boon to the production of fuels, biopolymers and many more. Different
varieties of residues liberate different amount of energy on degradation. The varieties of residues include agricultural
residues, forestry residues and industrial waste which had been reported to liberate 10-66EJ, 3-35EJ and 12-120 EJ of energy
respectively. Biomass basically comprises of cellulose , hemicelluloses and lignin. Lignin must be removed for first for the
further degradation of cellulose and hemicelluloses. Bioconversion disrupts the linkage between cellulose-hemicelluloselignin.
There are existence of different pretreatment methods for maximum degradation of biomass and no single method has
reported for efficient conversion of biomass to fuel. Pretreatment methods alter the chemical and physical structure thereby
reducing the complexity in the structure of the biomass. The modification increases the accessibility of the substrates
towards chemical as well as enzymatic degradation. While it was also found that some inhibitory byproducts formation
occurs which bind to lignin thus reducing its rate of degradation. Methods including steam treatment, ammonia fiber
explosion (AFEX) and liquid hot water (LHW) observed to minimize the secretion of inhibitory byproducts. The paper
focuses on different strategies used for the maximum simplification of the biomass.
Keywords - Lignocellulose, Lignin, Bioconversion, Inhibitors, Ammonia Fiber Explosion, Liquid Hot Water