1.

1 Background
The exact origins of soap are unknown, though Roman sources claim it dates back to at least600
B.C., when Phoenicians prepared it from goat's tallow and wood ash. Soap is also made by the
Celts, ancient inhabitants of Britain. Soap is used widely throughout the Roman Empire,
primarily as a medicine. Soap making is an art as well as a science .Soap-makers had to pay a
heavy tax on all the soap they produced. The tax collector locked the lids on soap boiling pans
every night to prevent illegal soap manufacture after hours. Early soap manufacturers simply
boiled a solution of wood ash and animal fat. Soap is made with industrial processes by the end
of the 19th century, though people in rural areas, such as the pioneers in the western United
States, continued to make soap at home. However, the current widespread use of soap is only a
very recent occurrence, despite the fact that it has been made for more than 2500 years.
Bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass is complex due to its structural properties
and requires the utilization of the carbohydrate fractions, i.e. cellulose and hemicelluloses. The
production process involves several steps including the biomass pre-treatment, hydrolysis of
carbohydrates, fermentation of simple sugars into ethanol, and distillation for product recovery.
Lignocellulosic materials refer to materials such as municipal and animal wastes, agricultural
residues (rice straw, sugar cane bagasse, spent grains), wood residual (sawmill, wood chips paper
mill discards) which are potential sources for low cost production of ethanol. In last two decades,
a huge investigation has been done on conversion of lignocellulosic materials to ethanol. Ethanol
production from lignocellulosic materials has the advantage of abundant and various raw
materials compared to sources like corn and cane sugars, however requires a larger amount of
processing to make the sugar monomers available to the microorganisms that are usually used to
produce ethanol by fermentation [5].