The proposal to convert sugars from biomass into liquid
fuels, mainly ethanol and petroleum derivatives, is not
new. Since the first oil crisis in the 1970s, governments and
scientists have invested in alternatives sources of petroleum,
which have relied mostly on biomass. Oil price regularization
and its availability reduced the interest in biomass
for more than 20 years, until geopolitical instabilities
and environmental concerns renewed interest in biomass
utilization (Zaldivar et al., 2001; Zanin et al., 2000).