Lipids are a biorefinery platform to prepare fuel, food and health products. They are traditionally obtained from plants, but those of microbial origin allow for a better use of land and C resources, among other benefits. Several (thermo)chemical and biochemical strategies are used for the conversion of C contained in lignocellulosic biomass into lipids. In particular, pyrolysis can process virtually any biomass and is easy to scale up. Products offer cost-effective, renewable C in the form of readily fermentable molecules and other upgradable intermediates. Although the production of microbial lipids has been studied for 30 years, their incorporation into biorefineries was only described a few years ago. As pyrolysis becomes a profitable technology to depolymerize lignocellulosic biomass into assimilable C, the number of investigations on it raises significantly. This article describes the challenges and opportunities resulting from the combination of lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis and lipid biosynthesis with oleaginous microorganisms. First, this work presents the basics of the individual processes, and then it shows state-of-the-art processes for the preparation of microbial lipids from biomass pyrolysis products. Advanced knowledge on separation techniques, structure analysis, and fermentability is detailed for each biomass pyrolysis fraction. Finally, the microbial fatty acid platform comprising biofuel, human food and animal feed products, and others, is presented. Literature shows that the microbial lipid production from anhydrosugars, like levoglucosan, and short-chain organic acids, like acetic acid, is straightforward. Indeed, processes achieving nearly theoretical yields form the latter have been described. Some authors have shown that lipid biosynthesis from different lignin sources is biochemically feasible. However, it still imposes major challenges regarding strain performance. No report on the fermentation of pyrolytic lignin is yet available. Research on the microbial uptake of pyrolytic humins remains vacant. Microorganisms that make use of methane show promising results at the proof-of-concept level. Overall, despite some issues need to be tackled, it is now possible to conceive new versatile biorefinery models by combining lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis products and robust oleaginous microbial cell factories.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2021.107791 | DOI Listing |
J Ginseng Res
January 2025
Department of Food Science & Biotechnology, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Background: Subcritical water (SW) is regarded as an effective conversion technology for lignocellulosic biomass. The effect of SW on ginseng are limited to evaluate the ginsenoside composition of red ginseng, and there is little information on the effects of SW on fresh ginseng.
Methods: The general characteristics of ginseng extracts (GE) prepared with SW were evaluated in terms of brix, reducing sugar and residual solid content, and compositions of GE was estimated using chromatography.
Int J Biol Macromol
January 2025
School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address:
Lignocellulosic biomass represents one of the most abundant renewable biological resources on earth. Despite its current underutilization as a source of high-value chemicals, it has promising applications in biomedical and other fields. Presently, lignocellulose is predominantly transformed into high-value-added products, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
School of Pharmacy, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China; State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China. Electronic address:
Different molar ratio of choline chloride (ChCl) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) (2: 1, 1: 1 and 1: 2, mol: mol) were used to prepare deep eutectic solvents (ChCl: p-TsOH) for pretreating cellulose fibers to elevate cellulose accessibility, enhance xylan elimination, increase lignin removal and promote enzymatic digestion. ChCl: p-TsOH (1: 1, mol: mol) could effectually destroy the dense layout of wheat straw (WS) at 80 °C for 60 min. Cellulose crystallinity declined from 43.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, via Elce di Sotto 8, 06123 Perugia, Italy. Electronic address:
Lignocellulosic biomass, rich in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, represents a promising renewable resource. However, lignin, a complex polyphenolic material, remains underutilized despite its surplus production. This review focuses on the conversion of lignin into macromonomers for polymer production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Omega
January 2025
Green Chemical Reaction Engineering, Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
Pyrolysis liquids from lignocellulosic biomass have the potential to be used as a feed for aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) using catalytic upgrading with zeolites. We here report an experimental study on the conversion of various pyrolysis oil fractions to determine the most suitable one for BTX synthesis. For this purpose, the pyrolysis liquid was fractionated using several extraction/distillation steps to give four fractions with different chemical compositions.
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