Raphael Oliveira Sena

Bio: Raphael Oliveira Sena is an academic researcher from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The author has contributed to research in topics: Lipase & Pichia pastoris. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 1 citations.

Microorganisms-promoted biodiesel production from biomass: A review

Abstract: Biodiesel is considered as a potential substitute for fossil fuel due to its renewability, sustainability, environmentally friendliness, and biodegradability, especially with comparable fuel properties to diesel. The chemocatalytic production of biodiesel from plant oils is widely used in industrial production due to its low cost and high conversion rate. However, the disadvantages are high energy consumption and environmentally unfriendly processing such as chemical catalysts, downstream technology and simultaneously produced waste. Therefore, in the past decade, enzyme-catalyzed biodiesel has attracted more attentions due to its sustainability and environmental friendliness. High-cost, enzyme stability and reusability are the main obstacles to the large-scale industrial development of microbial biodiesel. This review first showcases the state-of-the-art of microbial biodiesel production, including (1) lipid accumulation of oleaginous microorganisms from pretreated lignocellulose biomass, and (2) production of biodiesel from microbial oils via transesterification by immobilized lipase. Also, the technological challenges and future developmental trends are discussed, with the goal of providing the possibility of more economical large-scale industrial production. This paper provides opportunities for the sustainable and eco-friendly production of enzymatic biodiesel in the future.

Advances in Komagataella phaffii Engineering for the Production of Renewable Chemicals and Proteins

Abstract: The need for a more sustainable society has prompted the development of bio-based processes to produce fuels, chemicals, and materials in substitution for fossil-based ones. In this context, microorganisms have been employed to convert renewable carbon sources into various products. The methylotrophic yeast Komagataella phaffii has been extensively used in the production of heterologous proteins. More recently, it has been explored as a host organism to produce various chemicals through new metabolic engineering and synthetic biology tools. This review first summarizes Komagataella taxonomy and diversity and then highlights the recent approaches in cell engineering to produce renewable chemicals and proteins. Finally, strategies to optimize and develop new fermentative processes using K. phaffii as a cell factory are presented and discussed. The yeast K. phaffii shows an outstanding performance for renewable chemicals and protein production due to its ability to metabolize different carbon sources and the availability of engineering tools. Indeed, it has been employed in producing alcohols, carboxylic acids, proteins, and other compounds using different carbon sources, including glycerol, glucose, xylose, methanol, and even CO2.

Engineering lipase at the molecular scale for cleaner biodiesel production - A review

Abstract: Increasing environmental concerns and significant demand for industrial fuels necessitate the development of alternate and sustainable energy sources. Biodiesel is a renewable and environmentally friendly fuel produced by trans-esterifying a variety of feedstocks. Lipases are robust triacylglycerol ester hydrolases that catalyze hydrolysis, esterification, interesterification, transesterification, acylation, acidolysis, alcoholysis, aminolysis, and resolution of racemates. Although the lipase-assisted greener biosynthesis of biodiesel has numerous advantages over the traditional alkali-based process, low catalytic efficiency, marginal stability, and high cost of lipase enzymes limit its widespread industrial processability. Protein engineering methodologies such as directed evolution, semi-rational design, and rational design can effectively tailor or improve the biocatalytic characteristics of lipase enzymes used in biodiesel generation, such as thermostability, solvent tolerance, activity, and substrate specificity. These innovative techniques improved our ability to predict structure-function relationships, engineering qualities, computational tools for designing new biocatalysts, and functional screening to manipulate enzyme traits for application in prevalent industrial bioprocesses. Many recent studies have demonstrated improved lipase performance, such as activity, stability, and specificity via protein engineering. This review spotlights a current overview of lipase engineering at the molecular scale with robust biocatalytic properties for biodiesel synthesis.