Biomass Pretreatment

Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is a sustainable, economical, and rich source for second-generation (2G) biofuel production. For extracting valuable sugars from these feedstocks as a main substrate of fermentation, there is a requirement of pretreating the LCB. Pretreatment of LCB plays a crucial role in its conversion to biofuel because of its recalcitrant or robust nature. Efficient pretreatment methods shoot up the concentration of sugars after enzymatic hydrolysis, which ultimately increases the efficiency of the whole process and results in a greater yield of biofuels and other valuable by-products. However, the efficiency of pretreatment could only be evaluated based on suitable analytical techniques, which expose the various perspectives of fundamental changes in the structure of biomass. Therefore, the availability and usage of various analytical methods is a crucial aspect of biomass biorefinery to evaluate the potential of biofuel production from the particular feedstock and estimation of pretreatment efficiency. This chapter reviews the different pretreatment methods along with various analytical techniques that target various aspects of the process, resulting in low cost and maximum yield of fermentable sugars.