Biogenic Materials and Wastes: A Sustainable Source of Clean Energy

Abstract: Progress in agriculture and industry is taken as a general criterion for the development of any country, and this craze has resulted in unlimited exploitation of every bit of natural resources. The exploitation of natural resources includes biological and nonbiological waste. Wastes that are produced due to the exploitation of biological materials such as agro waste, rice husk, coconut shell, jatropha oil, banana peels, tea-tree extract, waste food, food products, insects, and chicken fat are known as biogenic waste. Biogenic materials can be used to minimize the environmental hazards produced through the exploitation of different nonbiogenic materials that are used by a larger number of populations in their daily life. Thus, biogenic materials can be used for the sustainable development of clean energy, as their production does not require industrialization. Currently, different types of biological materials are used in different sectors ranging from the construction sector to pharmaceuticals as well as food, biorefineries and agriculture. These materials, on the one hand, are proven to be very useful, as they have fulfilled the requirements with the goal of less environmental hazards in their production; they also have a dark phase with negative environmental impacts after their use. Modern research has led to the use of biogenic waste by transforming it into different types of nanomaterials that can be reused with minimum pollution and can be commercialized. This chapter includes different types of biomaterials and their uses along with biogenic wastes. The final section includes different types of transforming products of biogenic waste to nanomaterials along with their uses.