Abstract:
Climate change caused by the extensive use of fossil fuels is currently one
of the most challenging issues for scientific communities and nations across the
world. The population of many countries is growing rapidly and it is expected the
world population to reach approximately 8.5 billion by the year 2030. At the same
time, there is a spike in the economic development, especially in developing
countries like China and India and these countries have entered their most energy
intensive phase of economic growth. With increase in population, the demand for
energy, food and natural resources will increase substantially over the next
decade. Thus, an important issue faced today is to meet the increasing energy
demand and have sustainable energy resources for the future use while protecting
the environment.
Bioenergy can play a major role in the industrial countries consuming
huge amount of fossil energy and are also responsible for increasing CO2 level.
The rising world energy demand, uneven distribution of fossil resources and their
continuous depletion along with adverse impact on the environment, urge many
countries to formulate policies to promote sustainable energy source. The Energy
Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, United States (US) defined a
number of mandates with respect to renewable fuels. One of these mandates
called for the production of 16 billion gallons of cellulosic fuel by the year 2022.
In the US, one of the policies to promote biofuels is described by the Renewable
Fuel Standard (RFS) that dictates to increase the current biofuel usage from 7.1 to
15% in transportation fleets. Similarly, European Commission (EC) in 2007
mandated that out of total energy use, 20% needs to be achieved from renewable
sources and out of that, 10% to be used in transportation by 2020 [20].
Government of India in 2009 mandated 5% ethanol blending in gasoline and has
an ambitious plan to reach up to 20% blending by 2017. The current ethanol
production is India is based on sugarcane molasses and in order to meet the set
target extensive research and development efforts are undergoing to
commercialize the cellulosic ethanol technology.
