Ethanol is one of the most important fuels from renewable
sources that are currently in production at competitive prices. In
Brazil, it is obtained from sugar cane and in the US from corn. However,
present day production is not sufficient to satisfy the demand
for energy. Another strategy involves the use of agricultural or forest
residues with high contents of cellulose and lignin (Olsson
et al., 2001; Zacchi et al., 2006). However, these processes do have
a disadvantage in that they require an additional step which is the
saccharification of the lignocellulose materials, a more difficult
stage than the direct use of the sucrose, as in the case of sugar cane
or the saccharification of corn starch. For the production of ethanol
as an alcoholic beverage, several plant raw materials have been
exploited over the centuries, including the agaves, which in México
have been used to produce fermented drinks and Tequila.