India is the second-largest cultivator of sugarcane worldwide, the primary
source of refined sugar. Increased demand for sugar has driven this industry as a
mainstream pollutant-generating industry. Every year, a tremendous amount of liquid
(molasses) and solid wastes (sugarcane bagasse, filter cake) are generated, posing a
major bottleneck for waste management. Although there exist traditional approaches
like incineration, landfills are being employed for handling sugarcane waste which
leads to the emission of greenhouse gases, and foul odour and adds more cost to
running a sustainable industry. Moreover, no value-added product is formed from such
traditional approaches resulting in an immense loss of bioenergy. Researchers have
emphasized transforming waste into a sustainable economic generation of higher\-value
products over the past few decades. Sugarcane industrial waste is a rich source of
lignocellulosic organic biomass, which is used as a raw material for the production of
biofuel (bioethanol, biogas), single cells proteins, enzymes, organic acids, food
additives and nutraceuticals. Day by day, with advanced technology, novel applications
are evolving, adding more thrust to this area. In this chapter, the potential of
valorization of sugarcane waste to value-added products is discussed comprehensively.
Keywords: Biochemical, Biofuel, Lignocellulosic, Sugarcane waste, Value-added products.
