Journal of Biofuels

Pretreatment of cellulosic biomass has significant impact on the yield and production cost and, hence, is subjected to substantial research. Advancement in pretreatment technology is warranted to attain desirable results in the production process. Improvement in the pretreatment process can help in mitigating inherent challenges confronted in the cellulosic ethanol production. This study is about the process of pretreatment, highlighting recent innovations and techno-economic breakthroughs. The diverse advantages and disadvantages for different pretreatment methods have been reported. The study finds out that dilute-acid pretreatment could prove to be a suitable process for pretreatment of cellulosic biomass. It maximises the hemicellulosic sugar yields and turns out to be relatively better option than other pretreatment methods. The study underscores a broad range of improvements including sugar protection, lesser degradation products, high yields, mild processing conditions and lesser requirements of enzymes. These developments resulted into significant improvement in ethanol yield and substantial reduction in production cost.