Resumen en español

The state of the art of the anhydrous alcohol production from banana rejects is described by a comparative analysis of the previous studies about the alternative uses of this fruit at Urabá Antioqueño from 1980 until now. It takes in consideration the availability of the fruit, its chemical composition, the physicochemical processes involved in the production of anhydrous bioethanol, and the potential environmental impacts of this industry. Whereas banana rejects are vast, uncertainty about its availability for the alcohol industry subsists because the fruit is utilized in composting and animal feeding. Although the advancements and possibilities to upgrade the traditional processes (meaning acid or enzymatic hydrolysis and alcohol fermentation), ABE fermentation emerges as an industrial process in the near future, accompanied by dehydration technologies such as pervaporation and bioadsorption. Environmental assessments about the ethanol production from green banana have not been reported thus far.