A Review on Role of Nanomaterials in Bioconversion of Sustainable Fuel Bioethanol

The growing consumption of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and diesel releases greenhouse gases that ultimately deteriorate the air quality. Moreover, fossil fuels pose serious threats like global warming, ocean acidification, unusual climate change and ecosystem fluctuation to the environment and human health. Biofuel is a feasible and sustainable alternative to overcome the limitations of fossil fuels. Among all the biofuels, bioethanol is currently in trend. The industrial-scale bioethanol production is a time-consuming process due to the non-availability of potential techniques and instrumentation. The pretreatment of rigid and recalcitrant lignocellulosic biomass to release fermentable sugars is crucial in the bioethanol production process. Conventionally it was done through physical, chemical and biological methods that demand high energy input, temperature, pressure, efficient organisms, expensive chemicals and solvents to loosen the compact structure of the raw materials. All these methods are sophisticated and expensive which results in the formation of harmful and inhibitory compounds and may also cause equipment corrosion. In this context, the introduction of nanotechnology in bioethanol production has shown improvement on a large scale. The small size, sturdiness and high surface to volume ratio of nanoparticles make them suitable for application in bioethanol production. Thus, the current review provides an insight into the role of nanotechnology in the various steps of the bioethanol production process. The paper will focus on the application of various nanomaterials and nanobiocatalyst in boosting the conversion of rigid lignocellulosic feedstock into fermentable sugar and facilitating the extent of reaction during fermentation for higher bioethanol yield. [GRAPHICS] .