Hydrocarbon plant—New source of energy for future

The development of alternative sources for energy and chemicals, particularly the use of plant biomass as a renewable source for fuel or chemical feedstocks, has received much recent attention. This paper attempts to review the work carried out by many workers on evaluation of some plant materials as source of energy and chemical feedstocks and the possibilities of producing hydrocarbon and related chemical products, directly or indirectly. Also an exploratory work carried out at Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat is discussed. Some future directions, which need to be considered to promote development of these petrocrops, are suggested.