Bioethanol is by far the most widely used biofuel for transportation worldwide. Production of bioethanol from biomass is one way to reduce both consumption of crude oil and environmental pollution. Bioethanol can be produced from different kinds of raw materials. These raw materials are classified into three categories of agricultural raw materials: simple sugars, starch and lignocellulose. The price of the raw materials is highly volatile. which can highly affect the production costs of the bioethanol. One major problem with bioethanol production is the availability of raw materials for the production. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most promising feedstock considering its great availability and low cost, but the large-scale commercial production of fuel bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials has still not been implemented. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.