Pretreatment of Crop Residues by Application of Microwave Heating and Alkaline Solution for Biofuel Processing: A Review

The effect of microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatments and enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic agricultural crop residues are reviewed. Pretreatment is a major step for the efficient and effective biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuel. Microwave-assisted alkali pretreatment is one of the promising techniques used in the bioconversion of biomass into useful energy product. The advantages of microwave heating coupled with alkaline pretreatment include reduction of the process energy requirement, rapid and super heating, and low toxic compound formation. This chapter reviews recent microwave-assisted alkali pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification techniques on different agricultural residues highlighting lignocellulosic biomass treatments and reducing sugar yields, and recovery. In addition, compiled up-to-date research studies, development efforts and research findings related to microwave-assisted alkali, and enzymatic hydrolysis are provided.