Microbial Technologies in Advanced Biofuels Production
Concerns over dwindling fossil fuel reserves and impending climate changes have focused attention worldwide on the need to discover alternative, sustainable energy sources and fuels. Biofuels, already produced on a massive industrial scale, are seen as on
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Microbial Technologies in Advanced Biofuels Production
Editor Patrick C. Hallenbeck Département de microbiologie et immunologie Université de Montréal, CP 6128 Succursale Centre-ville Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7 Canada [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4614-1207-6 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-1208-3 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1208-3 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011942479 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Dwindling fossil fuel reserves and concerns about the enormous impact of climate change attributable to the burning of fossil fuels have focused the world’s attention on the search for sustainable sources of renewable energy. A glance at any daily newspaper is very likely to find at least one article treating this subject which has obviously very forcefully entered the public consciousness. While some inroads to these problems have been made through the deployment of technologies that are ready at present, principally generation of electricity with wind or hydro turbines, these resources are insufficient for the enormous challenge in front of us, and certainly are incapable of satisfying more than a tiny fraction of the world’s hunger for mobile power sources. Biofuels, fuels made from biological sources, appear to be the only way to make the necessary liquid or gaseous fuels in sufficient quantities in a renewable way with minimal environmental damage. The only other remotely possible alternative, hydrogen generation with nuclear power, would have a very hard sell after the recent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. It might be possible to someday use biological means to extract energy directly from water in the form of hydrogen. Otherwise, suitable fuels can be derived from biomass, plant material made by the natural process of solar energy capture by photosynthesis. These resources are abundantly available and a variety of processes might be used to derive suitable fuels from them. Some processes use physico-chemical means to directly convert biomass to a biofuel, but these are not discussed here. Rather, the purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the great variety of biological mechanisms for converting readily availabl
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