Suitability of Pearl Millet as an Alternate Lignocellulosic Feedstock for Biofuel Production in India

Maheshwari Packiam^1, , Karthikeyan Subburamu², Ramesh Desikan², Sivakumar Uthandi¹, Marimuthu Subramanian³ and Kamaraj Soundarapandian²

¹Department of Agricultural Microbiology, TNAU, Coimbatore, India

²Department of Bioenergy, TNAU, Coimbatore, India

³Department of Nano Science and Technology, TNAU, Coimbatore, India

Cite this paper:
Maheshwari Packiam, Karthikeyan Subburamu, Ramesh Desikan, Sivakumar Uthandi, Marimuthu Subramanian and Kamaraj Soundarapandian. Suitability of Pearl Millet as an Alternate Lignocellulosic Feedstock for Biofuel Production in India. Journal of Applied & Environmental Microbiology. 2018; 6(2):51-58. doi: 10.12691/jaem-6-2-4

Abstract

Due to the depletion of the world petroleum energy reserves and the increased public concern about global warming are strongly attracting worldwide interest in alternative fuels. In 2011, India collaborated with United States Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) for production of biofuel with low carbon emission. For this reason, both the countries were issued a funding opportunity to establish a JCER&DC (Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre. National Renewable Energy laboratory (NREL) had executed various ethanol research projects for cellulosic ethanol production for commercial scale production from various sources. Cellulose (41.6 %) and hemicellulose (22.32 %) are the principal component for cellulosic biofuel production. These carbohydrates (Cellulose and hemicellulose) are present in the bajra biomass. The feasibility of a new energy crop will be largely depends on its production costs, availability, conversion efficiency and cost of existing fuels. These characters are present in the bajra crop which makes the crop suitable as a bioenergy crop.

Keywords:
bajra carbohydrates feasibility bioenergy crop

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