Handbook of Plant-BasedBiofuelsEdited by Ashok Pandey

CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2008. 297 pp. ,hardcover US$ 119.95—ISBN 978-1-56022-175-3

During this timeof significant vola-tility and uncer-tainty in theliquid fuel market,the utilization ofalternatives suchas biomass in theproduction ofliquid fuels hasgained resurgencein the areas of re-search, investment, and development.Conversion of biomass to biofuels is theonly process that utilizes renewable, re-duced carbon for the production of aliquid energy carrier. As such, it is theonly long-term, sustainable method ofutilizing conventional transportationtechnologies such as internal combus-tion or jet engines.

It is therefore timely that Editor AshokPandey has assembled a comprehensivereference on the production of plant-based renewable biofuels, focusing spe-cifically on the chemistry and processtechnology for the production of bioe-thanol and biodiesel. As noted in thepreface, these two biofuels appear to bepromising future energy carriers and areplacement for limited fossil fuels andraw materials. To adequately reviewthese two biofuels, 45 authors contribut-ed 20 chapters within three sections fo-cusing on a general introduction to bio-fuels, production of bioethanol, and pro-duction of biodiesel. Contained withinthese chapters are details on the eco-nomics, process chemistry, engineering,process design, and environmental

issues of bioethanol and biodiesel pro-duction.

The organizational structure of thishandbook makes it a useful text for bothstudents and advanced researchers. In-troductory chapters for each section areclearly written and sufficiently broad incontent to benefit undergraduate stu-dents who are new to studying chemicalprocesses. At the same time, subsequentchapters serve as well-detailed reviewsof specific aspects of process technology.This range of informational complexityallows this text to serve as either acourse textbook or a quick reference fortechnical details.

The first section provides an effectiveintroduction to biofuel technology withan initial chapter describing the role ofbiofuels in the development of renewa-ble energy. Topics covered include anoverview of the world energy scenario,an introduction to competing renewableenergy technologies, and a brief exposi-tion on the integration of biofuels withinthe existing fuel infrastructure. Subse-quent chapters within this section pro-vide a brief evaluation of existing tech-nology for thermochemical processing ofbiomass including gasification, pyrolysis,liquefaction, and synthetic fuel produc-tion. The last chapter of section one re-views the biodiesel economy with a de-scription of the transesterificationchemistry and biodiesel fuel properties.

The second section includes sevenchapters with in-depth detail regardingall aspects of the production of bioetha-nol. The introductory chapter by EdgardGnansounou discusses the current statusof ethanol production as well as the out-look for future ethanol development de-pendent on energy security, economicand environmental drivers, and techno-logical development. Six subsequentchapters provide extensively detailed de-scriptions of specific industrial processesor process technologies for bioethanolproduction including 1) ethanol from

molasses, 2) production of starch saccha-rifying enzymes, 3) hydrolysis and fer-mentation of starchy biomass, 4) pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass,5) production of enzymes for lignocellu-losic biomass, and 6) hydrolysis and fer-mentation of lignocellulosic biomass.

The last section covering biodiesel isintroduced with current and future per-spectives of the biodiesel industry fuelmarkets and a brief description of fuelstandards, feedstocks, and opportunities.A second introductory chapter providesan effective review of the chemical char-acteristics of vegetable oil, various chem-ical catalysts, and the overall processchemistries of esterification. The nexttwo chapters clearly describe current al-ternative biodiesel technologies includ-ing aspects of lipase-catalyzed prepara-tion of biodiesel and biodiesel produc-tion with supercritical fluid technologies.

Altogether, these four chapters effective-ly review the broad aspects of biodieseltechnologies.

These chapters are combined with anadditional five chapters in this third sec-tion which describe specific biodieselproduction processes around the world.This approach successfully connects thedescription of general biodiesel chemis-try with the fuel characteristics and pro-duction details of biodiesel processesfrom particular vegetable oil feedstocks.Full reviews describe biodiesel produc-tion from: 1) palm oil in Malaysia, 2) ricebran oil, 3) Karanja (Pongamia pinnata)and Jatropha (Jatropha curcas), 4) Mahua(Madhuca indica) seed oil, and 5) rubber(Hevea brasiliensis) seed oil. Each chaptercontains significant detail of the variousprocesses including process diagramsand descriptions, chemical reaction dataand fuel characteristics as well-organizedfigures.

The organizational approach taken byDr. Pandey to enlist numerous expertson bioethanol and biodiesel succeeds increating an effective handbook for pro-

Fuel for Thought

386 www.chemsuschem.org � 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ChemSusChem 2010, 3, 386 – 387

cess technology. Readers with limitedknowledge of renewable fuels will be ca-pable of picking up this book and under-standing the broad themes, while an ad-vanced researcher will find it a usefultechnical reference on her/his bookshelf.Additionally, the content is well balancedbetween introductory information, bio-logical technology, and aspects of pro-

duction. However, limited coverage ofthermochemical technologies and bio-fuel production processes such as pyrol-ysis provides opportunity for improve-ment in future editions.

Overall, this book contains valuable in-formation in a well-written style, and Ithoroughly enjoyed reading and review-ing the various summary tables and fig-

ures. This handbook is therefore recom-mended to persons interested in learn-ing more about biomass-to-biofuelsprocessing.

Paul J. DauenhauerAmherst, MA (USA)DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201000009

ChemSusChem 2010, 3, 386 – 387 � 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.chemsuschem.org 387