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Abstract
Lignocellulosic agro-wastes being one of the most plentiful renewable biomass are perceived to be potent feedstocks for production of biofuels and biochemicals, providing a sustainable alternative to depleting fossil derived energy sources. However, for the transformation of these recalcitrant agro-wastes, a consolidated one-pot bioprocess of efficient pretreatment, saccharification and fermentation is required. The cellulases, belonging to glycoside hydrolases (GH) are the key enzymes responsible for the hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages in cellulose to release reducing sugars, which can be fermented to different valuable products viz. butanol, ethanol, lactic acid, succinic acid etc. Therefore, their cost effective production by utilizing different agro-wastes as substrates becomes a desirable pursuit. The present review summarizes some of the notable examples of their production by valorisation of different agro-wastes.Further, the importance of robust cellulases which are stable in presence of ionic liquids have also been encompassed. Besides the realm of cellulases in biorefinery development, their other commercialapplications have also been incorporated.