Journal of Energy Bioscience 2025, Vol.16, No.4, 163-171 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/jeb 163 Systematic Review Open Access Bioenergy Production from Rapeseed Straw: A Feasibility Study Tianxia Guo 1, Kaiwen Liang 2 1 Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China 2 Agri-Products Application Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resouces, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: tianxia.guo@cuixi.org Journal of Energy Bioscience, 2025, Vol.16, No.4 doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0016 Received: 15 May, 2025 Accepted: 22 Jun., 2025 Published: 03 Jul., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Guo and Liang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Guo T.X., and Liang K.W., 2025, Bioenergy production from rapeseed straw: a feasibility study, Journal of Energy Bioscience, 16(4): 163-171 (doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0016) Abstract Rapeseed straw is a common type of agricultural waste. We want to see if it can be used for bioenergy, such as ethanol, biogas and protein, etc. In the experiment, we pre-treated the straw with water heat, dilute acid and mechanical methods. This way, its structure would become easier to decompose and the subsequent conversion efficiency would also be higher. Under the best conditions, the ethanol output can reach 12.2 g/L, and the methane output can reach up to 365 N mL/g of volatile solids. The remaining by-products can also be used to produce proteins or some valuable chemicals. We also attempted mechanical crushing and anaerobic digestion of straw and livestock manure together, which can increase gas production and energy recovery. However, the high ash content, high chlorine content and high sulfur content of straw still pose challenges. By improving pretreatment and process combinations, there is an opportunity to increase energy output and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this study is to provide data and scheme references for the utilization of rapeseed straw in the field of sustainable energy. Keywords Rapeseed straw; Bioenergy; Biological refining; Pre-treatment; Sustainability 1 Introduction With the increasing global demand for renewable energy, the reuse of agricultural waste is becoming increasingly important. Rapeseed straw is the main by-product left after rapeseed harvest, and its quantity is very large. In the past, people often burned directly in the fields. This not only wasted resources but also polluted the air and increased greenhouse gas emissions (Passoth and Sandgren, 2019; Abbasi-Riyakhuni et al., 2025). Therefore, finding more efficient utilization methods, especially in the field of bioenergy, is beneficial to both environmental protection and economic development. Although rapeseed straw has a high potential for biomass energy, it has a high lignin content and a compact structure, making it difficult to decompose. This will reduce the efficiency of biological transformation and is also a major challenge for industrial utilization. Research has found that if proper pretreatment is not carried out, straw is difficult to be enzymatically hydrolyzed and fermented, thereby affecting the output of fuels such as ethanol, biogas, biodiesel, and some high-value chemicals. There are still many problems in terms of its physicochemical properties, pretreatment methods, transformation processes and economic feasibility (Lopez-Linares et al., 2015; Passoth and Sandgren, 2019; Stolarski et al., 2024; Abbasi-Riyakhuni et al., 2025). This review mainly sorts out and analyzes the new progress of rapeseed straw in bioenergy production, with a focus on introducing pretreatment technologies, conversion routes (such as ethanol, biogas, biodiesel, etc.), energy output and by-product utilization, etc. The technical and economic conditions of different processes will also be compared to identify their advantages and problems, and future development directions will be proposed to provide references for the high-value utilization of agricultural waste and the green energy industry (Luo et al., 2011; Lopez-Linares et al., 2015; Kuglarz et al., 2018; Elsayed et al., 2020; 2022; Yang et al., 2024). 2 Rapeseed Straw as a Biomass Resource 2.1 Production potential Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is one of the common oil crops in the world, and there is a large amount of straw. At the current planting level, rapeseed can produce approximately 4.2 tons of dry straw per hectare (Elsayed et al.,
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