SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW Vivid techniques of pretreatment showing promising results in biofuel production and food processing Anand Prakesh 1 | Vivek Dave 2 | Srija Sur 3 | Prashansa Sharma 4 1 Department of Bio-science and Biotechnology, Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali, India 2 Department of Pharmacy, School of Health Science, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, India 3 Department of Pharmacy, Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali, India 4 Department of Clothing & Textile, Faculty of Home Science, Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali, India Correspondence Vivek Dave, Department of Pharmacy, School of Health Science Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, India. Email: vivekdave1984@gmail.com Abstract Different pretreatment techniques help to overcome many barriers in achieving desir- able bioproducts at low cost as well as at lower energy requirement. This review pre- dominantly aims to summarize all the pretreatment methods for the production of biofuel from biomass. The massive use of fossil fuel led to several huge problems Pre- dominantly, Bioenergy has attained great importance due to rapid depletion in fossil fuel because biofuels are considered to be one of the promising alternatives of non- renewable sources. The main objective of pretreatment methods is enhancement of sugar production by hydrolyzing the biomass and help in achieving maximum yield. Pretreatment is a significant tool for the conversion of cellulose as well as it is also very important to change the structure of cellulosic biomass. All the major pre- treatment techniques are broadly classified into physical, chemical, physicochemical and biological methodologies which includes techniques like Mechanical Comminu- tion, Acid hydrolysis, steam explosion, microwave pretreatment etc. The motive of these pretreatments is to make cellulose more available to the enzymes that assist in the conversion of carbohydrate polymers into fermentable sugars. Biological pretreat- ments have been analyzed to have immense advantages over physical and chemical pretreatments. Presently, Biomass almost produce about more than 13% of the world's energy. There are many high-throughput testing ideas and processing technol- ogies which can add up additional values for a better biomass processing in future. Thus, a systemic and computational approach can combine multistage formulation with multistage problem solving so that novel technology can be encouraged for the biorefinery production. This review has done extensive literature study of the various pretreatment technologies which will assist us to produce bioethanols and other biofuels that can be helpful in reducing the adverse effect on the environment. Practical Applications Predominantly, Bioenergy has attained great importance due to rapid depletion in fossil fuel because biofuels are considered to be one of the promising alternatives of nonrenewable sources. Biofuel Production and Food Processing of various pre- treatment technologies produce environmentally friendly methods. All methods of Received: 28 July 2020 Revised: 9 September 2020 Accepted: 20 September 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.13580 J Food Process Eng. 2020;e13580. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpe © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1 of 12 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.13580