Peptide supplementation relieves stress and enhances glycolytic flux in filamentous fungi during organic acid bioproduction.

Filamentous fungi occupy a uniquely favorable position in the bioproduction of organic acids. Intracellular stress is the main stimulator in filamentous fungi to produce and accumulate organic acids with high flux. However, stress can affect the physiological activities of filamentous fungi, thereby deteriorating their fermentation performance.

Ionic liquid-based multi-stage sugaring-out extraction of lactic acid from simulated broth and actual lignocellulosic fermentation broth.

In this study, ionic liquid-based sugaring-out extraction was developed to separate lactic acid from the synthetic solution and actual lignocellulosic fermentation broth. Except for [Emim]BF, the ILs with BF and OTF anion can form aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) with the aid of saccharides. With the same kind of saccharides, the ATPS formation ability of ILs could be promoted by increasing the side-chain length of ILs in the order of [Hmim]BF ≈ [Bmim]BF ˃ [Emim]BF due to the decrease in ILs' kosmotropicity.

The advanced performance of microbial consortium for simultaneous utilization of glucose and xylose to produce lactic acid directly from dilute sulfuric acid pretreated corn stover.

Background: Lignocellulosic feedstocks have attracted much attention as a potential carbon source for lactic acid (LA) production because of their ready availability, sustainability, and renewability. However, there are at least two major technical challenges to producing LA from lignocellulose. Inhibitors derived from lignocellulose pretreatment have a negative impact on the growth of cells producing LA.

Environmental impacts of functional fillers in polylactide (PLA)-based bottles using life cycle assessment methodology.

The use of functional fillers added to PLA-based products can be beneficial in terms of cost reduction and properties improvement. The existing life cycle assessment of PLA containers mainly focuses on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of PLA material model without fillers, and overlooked environmental impacts of functional fillers and the significant environmental problem-shifting on other indicators. This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of cooking oil bottles made from PLA, PLA/Fibers and PLA/CaCO considering a wide spectrum impacts, and compares the environmental profile of them based on normalization and weighting analysis.

[Engineering progress in microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates].

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are polymers obtained by esterification of hydroxy fatty acid monomers. Due to similar mechanical characteristics of traditional petroleum-based plastics, 100% biodegradability and biocompatibility, PHAs are considered to be one of the most potential green materials. However, the application and promotion of PHAs as a green and environmentally friendly material are difficult because of the high production costs.

[Research progress in polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and their blend fibers].

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a representative biodegradable polymer with more than 150 varieties and various properties. This article reviews the research status and potential applications of PHA, and introduces the properties of four-generation commercial PHA and its research progress in blend fibers with other biodegradable materials.

Computational design of enhanced detoxification activity of a zearalenone lactonase from in acidic medium.

Computational design of pH-activity profiles for enzymes is of great importance in industrial applications. In this research, a computational strategy was developed to engineer the pH-activity profile of a zearalenone lactonase (ZHD101) from to promote its activity in acidic medium. The active site p values of ZHD101 were computationally designed by introducing positively charged lysine mutations on the enzyme surface, and the experimental results showed that two variants, M2(D157K) and M9(E171K), increased the catalytic efficiencies of ZHD101 modestly under acidic conditions.

Pretreatment of corn stover by solid acid for d-lactic acid fermentation.

Solid acid is a new acid that is safe and green, which has been widely used in the fields of acid pickling. In this study, we adopted solid acid to pretreat corn stover and used the pretreated corn stover in the fermentation of d-lactic acid. Finally, we obtained optimal conditions for the pretreatment of corn stover by solid acid: digestion temperature of 120°C, digestion time of 80min, and solid acid concentration of 1.