Book excerpt: Environmental sustainability and development is of critical importance. Technological advances in the production of new energy sources are making their way into our lives in more and more depth every day. However, there is an urgent need to address the technological challenges and advancement of the various chemical and bio-processes to maintain the dynamic sustainability of our energy needs. Toward that end, an attempt is being made to look at recent advances, key issues still faced and where possible, offer suggestions on alternative technologies to optimize sustainable processes. Still considered a new area of science, energy sources themselves are still being 'discovered'...meaning, what is financially viable in the current marketplace is changing. For example, energy from plants has not been financially viable in the past because of the high cost of growing, harvesting, breaking down cell walls, disposal of waste products, etc. Materials used to derive energy from sustainable resources is changing, making previously high-cost processes more efficient. It is crucial that the industry as a while works in tandem to develop crops that new technological advances make financially feasible. This book will cover recent advances in the chemicals, bioprocesses and other materials used in growing and extracting energy from sustainable products. Membrane/cell wall digestion issues will also be covered as well as recovering mamixal amounts of energy from sources to limit waste. Finally a section on safety and control will be presented with has been poorly covered in other publications. ​