Industrial Biotechnology

Abstract Among the various biomass pretreatment methods, steam explosion is one of the most widely used due to its cost-effective disruption of the plant structure and hence enhanced enzymatic accessibility. The operational parameters including temperature, residence time and acid concentration...

Miscanthus, a perennial grass, is an attractive biofuel feedstock compared with corn and poplar due to its high energy yield per hectare and low agricultural inputs such as water and soil nutrients. Recent studies have shown the three primary components of miscanthus, cellulose, hemicellulose, and...

The use of activated sludge microflora to convert sugars, derived from the hydrolysis of lignocellulose biomass, into lipids for biofuel production is of current research interest in our group. Lipid accumulation in this system has been enhanced by manipulating the carbon-nitrogen (C:N) ratio and...

As oil is a fast depleting resource (BP, 2010), much is expected by the production of biofuels as valid options to replace fossil-oil transportation fuels. Biorefineries are not an entirely new concept. Many of the traditional biomass conversion technologies such as the sugar and paper industries...

Degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose is considered an important factor to effect on the conversion of Lignocellulose. The higher DP of cellulose, the more difficult conversion of lignocellulose is. In this study, corncobs were pretreated with dilute acid process for production of xylose, and...

In order to improve enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency, several approaches including liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment, adding surfactant, magnetic stirring and fed-batch hydrolysis were investigated, in which Sweet sorghum bagasse (SSB) was chosen as the feedstock. The experiment results showed...

Glycerol is a viable renewable feedstock that has emerged as a consequence of triglyceride conversion to biodiesel. In addition to glycerol conversion to commodity chemicals such as propylene glycol and epichlorohydrin, formation of higher-value specialty chemical products such as 1,3-...

The conversion of C5-C6 sugars into 2-furfural (FA) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) have been considered as key intermediate step in the production of transportation fuels and chemicals from ligno-cellulosic biomass. Typically, the process involves the dehydration reaction of the sugars catalyze...

Some processes aimed to biofuels production, use lignocellulosic wastes as feedstocks for fermentative conversion. If this is the case, pretreatment is required to make these resources fully digestible. Among a wide range of pretreatment options, this study focuses and compares oxidative-alkaline...

Presented is a novel gasification application where biomass is steam-gasified and natural gas is steam-reformed simultaneously in a solar reactor. Solar-driven gasification is a proven technology, and can augment the biofuel industry as a domestic fuel source. Gasification performed in an...