Review Biofuel from rice straw Archita Sharma a , Gursharan Singh b , Shailendra Kumar Arya a, * a Department of Biotechnology, University Institute of Engineering Technology, Panjab. University, Chandigarh, India b Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara,144411, Punjab, India article info Article history: Received 22 June 2020 Received in revised form 31 August 2020 Accepted 1 September 2020 Available online 7 September 2020 Handling editor. Keywords: Biofuels Crop residues Greenhouse gases (GHGs) Rice straw Agriculture abstract Globally, protecting the environment is one of the major concerns and there is a need for an hour to accomplish the same by dropping numerous harmful activities such as less dependence on fossil fuels and tailpipe emissions. Additionally, a huge investment made on waste disposal is particularly not economical; but recycling is from the viewpoint of producing energy from renewable resources. These further result in the development of society in an eco-friendly way. Exploiting biodegradable wastes like agricultural or forestry residues, a non-edible portion is value-added biological products (biofuels) with an inexpensive potential to replace fossil fuels. The shortages of labor in the agricultural sector along with swift alterations from political, social, and economic aspects have resulted in accelerating the process of mechanization, precisely harvesters in the rice cropping systems. This bolsters the open-field burning of straw and results in nutrient loss, air pollution, more emissions of greenhouse gasses, and human respiratory disorders. This review aims to acknowledge readers with the concept of rice straw and its recent application in the production of biofuels, since biofuels act as a helping hand in minimizing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, renders energy security all over the globe and boosts the concept of sustainable development. Recent research reports and documentation have been discussed to support biofuel production from such biological products, at a much larger scale. All-inclusive, the discussion has been subjected as an outlook of future perspectives by the researchers for making most of the rice straw into more doable products to sort out numerous environmental issues and health hazards that are subjected to humanity. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2 2. Crop residues ........................................................................................................................ 3 2.1. Types and composition ......................................................................................................... 3 2.2. Exploitation of crop residues .................................................................................................... 4 2.3. Harmful emissions from the inappropriate exploitation of crop residues and their proper management .................. ................ 4 3. Rice straw .......................................................................................................................... 5 3.1. The availability of rice straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.2. Properties and composition of rice straw ......................................................................................... 5 3.3. Managing rice straw ............................................................................................................ 5 3.4. Field management and effect on the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) ............................................................ 6 3.4.1. In-field rice straw management .......................................................................................... 6 3.4.2. Off-field rice straw management ......................................................................................... 6 4. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) and SWOT analysis for biofuels production from rice straw ...................................................... 7 5. Pre-treatment methods for rice straw .................................................................................................. 9 6. Biofuels ............................................................................................................................ 9 6.1. Feedstocks for producing biofuels .................................................. ............................................ 10 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: skarya_kr@yahoo.co.in, skarya@pu.ac.in (S.K. Arya). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124101 0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 277 (2020) 124101