Lignocellulosic biomass: a sustainable platform for the production of bio-based chemicals and polymers

The demand for petroleum dependent chemicals and materials has been increasing despite the dwindling of their fossil resources. As the dead-end of petroleum based industry has started to appear, today's modern society has to implement alternative energy and valuable chemical resources immediately. Owing to the importance of lignocellulosic biomass being the most abundant and bio-renewable biomass on earth, this critical review provides insights into the potential of lignocellulosic biomass as an alternative platform to fossil resources. In this context, over 200 value-added compounds, which can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass by various treatment methods, are presented with their references. Lignocellulosic biomass based polymers and their commercial importance are also reported mainly in the frame of these compounds. This review article aims to draw the map of lignocellulosic biomass derived chemicals and their synthetic polymers, and to reveal the scope of this map in today's modern chemical and polymer industry.

Microbial 2,3-butanediol production: A state-of-the-art review

The demand for fossil derivate fuels and chemicals has increased, augmenting concerns on climate change, global economic stability, and sustainability on fossil resources. Therefore, the production of fuels and chemicals from alternative and renewable resources has attracted considerable and growing attention. Ethanol is a promising biofuel that can reduce the consumption of gasoline in the transportation sector and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock to produce bioethanol (cellulosic ethanol) because of its abundance and low cost. Since the conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol is complex and expensive, the cellulosic ethanol price cannot compete with those of the fossil derivate fuels. A promising strategy to lower the production cost of cellulosic ethanol is developing a biorefinery which produces ethanol and other high-value chemicals from lignocellulose. The selection of such chemicals is difficult because there are hundreds of products that can be produced from lignocellulose. Multiple reviews and reports have described a small group of lignocellulose derivate compounds that have the potential to be commercialized. Some of these products are in the bench scale and require extensive research and time before they can be industrially produced. This review examines chemicals and materials with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of at least 8, which have reached a commercial scale and could be shortly or immediately integrated into a cellulosic ethanol process.

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A review on commercial-scale high-value products that can be produced alongside cellulosic ethanol.

Recent advances in biological production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid

Enhanced 2,3-butanediol production by Klebsiella oxytoca using a two-stage agitation speed control strategy

Ethanol was a major byproduct of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) fermentation by Klebsiella oxytoca ME-UD-3. In order to achieve a high efficiency of 2,3-BD production, K. oxytoca mutants deficient in ethanol formation were successfully constructed by replace the aldA gene coding for aldehyde dehydrogenase with a tetracycline resistance cassette. The results suggested that inactivation of aldA led to a significantly improved 2,3-BD production. The carbon flux to 2,3-BD was enhanced by eliminating the byproducing ethanol and at the same time reducing the accumulation of another byproduct acetoin. At last, by fed-batch culturing of the mutant, the final 2,3-BD titer up to 130 g/l with the productivity of 1.63 g/l.h and the 2,3-BD yield relative to glucose of 0.48 g/g was obtained.

Engineering Klebsiella oxytoca for efficient 2, 3-butanediol production through insertional inactivation of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase gene

Development of an industrial medium for economical 2,3-butanediol production through co-fermentation of glucose and xylose by Klebsiella oxytoca.

The fermentative production of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) by Klebsiella pneumoniae under different fed-batch strategies was investigated. pH-stat fed-batch strategies proved to be not effective for economical 1,3-PD production for the existence of relatively high concentration of byproducts and residual glycerol at the end of the fermentation. However, in the pH-stat fed-batch strategy, an important phenomenon was observed that the yields of two main byproducts, 2,3-butanediol and lactic acid, were closely related to pH value. The dominant byproduct was 2,3-butanediol at a pH value of 5.0 to 6.5 but changed to be lactic acid at a pH value of 7.1 to 8.0. Based on the analysis of the phenomenon, a self-protection mechanism in K. pneumoniae, namely that the growing K. pneumoniae cells switch the metabolic pathways responding to environmental pH changes, was proposed. Thus a kind of feeding strategy was further applied during which the pH value was fluctuated between 6.3 and 7.3 periodically by feeding glycerol-ammonia mixture and sulphuric acid to make the metabolic pathways of 2,3-butanediol and lactic acid sub-active under the periodical low or high pH stress. At last, efficient 1,3-PD production was fulfilled under this fed-batch strategy, and the best results were achieved leading to 70 g/l 1,3-PD with a yield of 0.70 mol/mol glycerol and productivity of 0.97 g/l/h, while the two main byproducts and residual glycerol were under low concentrations.

Efficient 1,3-propanediol Production by Fed-Batch Culture of Klebsiella Pneumoniae : The Role of pH Fluctuation

Improved 1,3-propanediol production with hemicellulosic hydrolysates (corn straw) as cosubstrate: Impact of degradation products on Klebsiella pneumoniae growth and 1,3-propanediol fermentation.

Jian-Guo Zhu

Papers

Enhanced 2,3-butanediol production by Klebsiella oxytoca using a two-stage agitation speed control strategy

Engineering Klebsiella oxytoca for efficient 2, 3-butanediol production through insertional inactivation of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase gene

Development of an industrial medium for economical 2,3-butanediol production through co-fermentation of glucose and xylose by Klebsiella oxytoca.

Efficient 1,3-propanediol Production by Fed-Batch Culture of Klebsiella Pneumoniae : The Role of pH Fluctuation

Improved 1,3-propanediol production with hemicellulosic hydrolysates (corn straw) as cosubstrate: Impact of degradation products on Klebsiella pneumoniae growth and 1,3-propanediol fermentation.