Chapter 8: Green Gasoline: Integrated Production Processes, Future Perspectives and Technoeconomic Feasibility

The bioenergy derived from biomass is an indispensable part of sustainable energy strategies to satisfy present and future energy demands. Many conventional bioenergy production technologies are available and the selection of a particular technology is completely based on the category and composition of the biomass feedstock. These technologies face challenges to produce biofuel on a commercial scale and their relevance is limited to blending with petroleum-derived gasoline. The development of substantial coupled or integrated production technologies is vital with a view to perfecting the liquid gasoline production process analogous to conventional gasoline. New platform chemical-based conversion processes have also been studied thoroughly to produce alternative high octane number liquid fuels such as 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF). In this chapter, conventional thermochemical processing technologies for the conversion of biomass into green gasoline are discussed. The development, upgrading and bottlenecks of different processing technologies with various feedstocks are also discussed briefly. The production of furan-based chemicals such as DMF as a straight-run green gasoline is also considered. The technical and economic feasibility and future perspectives for the sustainable production of green gasoline are discussed.