Lignocellulosic Biomass Pretreatment and Enzymatic Conversion for Biofuels and Chemicals
This community focuses on breaking down agricultural residues like straw and bagasse into usable fuels and chemicals. The work centers on optimizing pretreatment methods and enzymatic processes to convert lignocellulosic waste into bioethanol, lactic acid, and other industrial products.
The research heavily features the use of manganese peroxidase and other ligninolytic enzymes to degrade lignin, a key step in making cellulose accessible. Common feedstocks include sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw, rice straw, and corn stover. Methods involve chemical pretreatments using potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, dilute acid, and liquid hot water, often followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The goal is to improve the yield of bioethanol and organic acids like lactic acid from these low-cost, abundant biomass sources. Optimization of these processes, frequently using response surface methodology, is a recurring theme to enhance efficiency and scalability for industrial applications.
The largest share of the community's output is found in manganese research, accounting for 1.5% of all manganese research, with 681 papers in this group. Sodium and potassium also appear frequently, representing 0.3% and 0.2% of their respective element research, respectively.
The community comprises 1,596 papers, primarily published in Bioresource Technology, Fuel, and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Recent work continues to explore advanced pretreatment strategies, such as deep eutectic solvents and fungal pretreatment, to enhance the recovery of hemicelluloses, lignin, and cellulose from agricultural and forest wastes for diverse industrial applications.