Pretreatment is an important step involved in the production of bioethanol from lignocelluosic biomass.
Though several pretreatment regimes are available, biological pretreatment seems to be promising being
an eco-friendly process and there is no inhibitor generation during the process. In the current scenario
there are few limitations in using this strategy for pilot scale process. The first and foremost one is the
long incubation time for effective delignification. This can be minimized to an extent by using suitable
microbial consortium. There is an urgent need for research and development activities and fine tuning
of the process for the development of an economically viable process. This review presents an overview
of various aspects of biological pretreatment, enzymes involved in the process, parameters affecting biological
pretreatment as well as future perspectives.