Microbial Enzymes In Bioconversions Of Biomass

This volume summarizes our current knowledge on different biomass-converting enzymes and their potential use in converting biomass into simple sugar to generate bioenergy and other value added co-/by products. It consists of 13 chapters and is divided into three parts: cellulases; hemicellulases; and lignocellulose oxidoreductases. Written by international experts, the contributions offer clear and concise descriptions of both standard and new technologies. It is an invaluable reference resource for undergraduates, post-graduates, researchers and practitioners in the field of microbial enzymes for biofuel and biorefinery applications.

Agro-industrial wastes are end-products emerging after industrial processing operations and also from their treatment and disposal e.g. solid fruit wastes and sludge. The agro-industrial wastes are often present in multiphase and comprise multicomponent. Nevertheless, these wastes are a goldmine as they possess valuable organic matter which can be diverted towards high value products ranging from polymers to antibiotics to platform chemicals. There have been plenty of books published on bioenergy, enzymes and organic acids, among others. However, this emerging field of biochemical has not yet been covered so far which is an important entity of the biorefinery model from waste biomass and needs to be understood from fundamental, applied as well as commercial perspective which has been laid out in this book.

This book offers a complete introduction for novices to understand key concepts of biocatalysis and how to produce in-house enzymes that can be used for low-cost biofuels production. The authors discuss the challenges involved in the commercialization of the biofuel industry, given the expense of commercial enzymes used for lignocellulose conversion. They describe the limitations in the process, such as complexity of lignocellulose structure, different microbial communities’ actions and interactions for degrading the recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic materials, hydrolysis mechanism and potential for bio refinery. Readers will gain understanding of the key concepts of microbial catalysis of lignocellulosic biomass, process complexities and selection of microbes for catalysis or genetic engineering to improve the production of bioethanol or biofuel

With step-by-step guidance on studying the processes of biomass conversion, a field combining basic and applied science with engineering analysis, the detail included here ensures reproducible results. So too does the astute advice from leading researchers.

This book discusses recent trends and developments in the microbial conversion process, which serves as an important route for biofuel production, with particular attention to bioreactors. It combines microbial conversion with multiphase flow and mass transfer, providing an alternative perspective for the understanding of microbial biomass and energy production process as well as enhancement strategy. This book is relevant to students and researchers who work in the fields of renewable energy, engineering and biotechnology. Policymakers, economists and industry engineers also benefit from this book, as it can be used as a resource for the implementation of renewable energy technologies.

The agricultural and forestry processing wastes (lignocellulosics) are an important material resource and energy source. However, if untreated they can pose a danger to the environment and potentially valuable resources. Microorganisms contribute significantly to solving the problem of biomass degradation, its recycling and conservation. In the recent years, an increasing interest shown by the textile, food, feed & pulp, and paper industries in the microbial and enzymatic processes has triggered in-depth studies of lignocellulolytic microorganisms and their enzymes. Moreover, the advent of recombinant DNA technology in the late 1970s further paved the way for developing technologies based on lignocellulolytic microbes and enzymes. Lignocellulose Biotechnology presents a comprehensive review of the research directed towards environmentally friendly agricultural and forest by-products. The book comprises 22 chapters, divided in four sections. It deals with a wide range of topics including biodiversity of lignocellulose degrading microorganisms and their enzymes, molecular biology of biodegradation of lignin, characterization of lignocellulolytic enzymes, bioconversion of plant biomass to produce enzymes, animal feed, bioethanol and industrial applications of lignocellulolytic enzymes. The chapters dealing with industrial applications also address current biotechnological approaches in lignocellulose bioconversion to value added products. This book is essential for students, researchers, scientists, and engineers working in the fields of environmental microbiology, environmental biotechnology, life sciences, waste management, and biomaterials.

Bioethanol has been recognized as a potential alternative to petroleum-derived transportation fuels. Even if cellulosic biomass is less expensive than corn and sugarcane, the higher costs for its conversion make the near-term price of cellulosic ethanol higher than that of corn ethanol and even more than that of sugarcane ethanol. Conventional process for bioethanol production from lignocellulose includes a chemical/physical pre-treatment of lignocellulose for lignin removal, mostly based on auto hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis, followed by saccharification of the free accessible cellulose portions of the biomass. The highest yields of fermentable sugars from cellulose portion are achieved by means of enzymatic hydrolysis, currently carried out using a mix of cellulases from the fungus Trichoderma reesei. Reduction of (hemi)cellulases production costs is strongly required to increase competitiveness of second generation bioethanol production. The final step is the fermentation of sugars obtained from saccharification, typically performed by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The current process is optimized for 6-carbon sugars fermentation, since most of yeasts cannot ferment 5-carbon sugars. Thus, research is aimed at exploring new engineered yeasts abilities to co-ferment 5- and 6-carbon sugars. Among the main routes to advance cellulosic ethanol, consolidate bio-processing, namely direct conversion of biomass into ethanol by a genetically modified microbes, holds tremendous potential to reduce ethanol production costs. Finally, the use of all the components of lignocellulose to produce a large spectra of biobased products is another challenge for further improving competitiveness of second generation bioethanol production, developing a biorefinery.

This book covers biomass modification to facilitate the industrial degradation processing and other characteristics of feedstocks and new technologies for the conversion of lignocelluloses into biofuels and other products.