Environmental problems as well as energy security factors are the main reason for
studying economic production pathway of renewable energy. Today, production of the second
generation bioethanol is widely studied around the world. The production process consists of
pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation and purification. After pretreatment, the hydrolysis
process is the key for cost effective bioethanol production. While biological hydrolysis is better
than chemical hydrolysis in many respects, current biological methods are not economical and
are time-consuming. Genetic engineering techniques appear to offer potential for cutting
production steps and improving efficiency and speed. To this end, a particular set of enzymes,
cellulases, has received an intension scrutiny by researchers. Three types of cellulases that
have been used to produce glucose monomers synergically are endoglucanase, exoglucanase
and β-glucosidase. This review also discuss on how recombinant enzymes can be utilized in
enzymatic hydrolysis. Furthermore, the benefits and challenges of the second generation
bioethanol production are also explained.