Natural microbial consortia exhibit characteristics of environmental robustness and the ability to utilize complex substrates. Inspired by them, various synthetic microbial consortia capable of utilizing economical substrates have been constructed. As an abundant renewable biomass resource, lignocellulose is regarded as the most promising raw material for replacing fossil energy...
Plant-based materials have the potential to replace some petroleum-based products, offering compostability and biodegradability as critical advantages. Xylan-rich biomass sources are gaining recognition due to their abundance and underutilization in current industrial applications. Research of potential xylan applications has been complicated by the complex and heterogeneous...
Xylitol, a five-carbon sugar alcohol, is recognized as a desirable sugar alternative due to its low-calorie content and metabolism independent of insulin. Its commercial production generally involves the chemical hydrogenation of D-xylose, an approach that is energy-demanding and environmentally unfriendly. Although fermentation offers a biological alternative, it often suffers...
This study establishes a computational framework for predictive style modeling in tobacco formulation design, addressing the critical disconnect between empirical approaches and blended system complexity. Herein, "style" refers to the characteristic sensory profiles (e.g., aroma, taste, and physiological sensations) intrinsically linked to cultivation regions, which arise from...
Renowned for their distinctive aromas, terpenoid flavor compounds and their precursors are widely used in medicine, food, and the flavor and fragrance industries. Rapid advances in synthetic biology, including the modification of microbial chassis cells, the design of synthetic pathways for novel target products, and the integration of large-scale microbial fermentation, have...
Waste activated sludge (WAS) represents a significant operational and environmental challenge for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) due to its low biodegradability, attributed to extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that hinder enzymatic hydrolysis. Electrochemical (EC) pretreatment has shown promise in improving organic matter solubilization. However, conventional systems...
This review critically examines the entire value chain of microalgal biorefineries, with the central aim of elucidating the key technological, economic, and environmental enablers and barriers that govern their transition from pilot-scale demonstrations to commercially viable, circular-economy applications. A systematic literature search was conducted across five major scientific...
Population growth throughout the world has led to increased pollution and overconsumption of fossil resources. Microalgae are increasingly recognized as sustainable biofactories for producing lipids and astaxanthin, two commercially significant metabolites with wide-ranging applications in biofuel, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and nutraceutical industries. Enhancing the yields of...
Enzymes capable of catalysing the production of hydrocarbons hold promise for sustainable fuel synthesis. However, the native activities of these enzymes are often insufficient for their exploitation in industrial bioprocesses. Enzyme engineering approaches including directed evolution (DE) can be used to improve the properties of enzymes to meet desirable standards for their...
Biomass is greatly influenced by geographic location, soil composition, environment, and climate, making the efficient and accurate identification of growing areas highly significant. This study proposes a classification model for tobacco growing areas based on time series features from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). This study combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with...
The red alga Palmaria palmata is a rich source of sugar compounds, particularly mixed-linkage xylans present in the cell walls of the algae. In contrast to their terrestrial lignocellulosic counterparts, these xylans are more easily accessible. They can be hydrolyzed enzymatically into valuable xylooligosaccharides (XOS), known for their prebiotic, antioxidant, and...
Cyanobacteria are promising platforms for metabolic engineering to convert carbon dioxide into valuable fuels and chemicals, addressing both energy demands and global climate change. Among various fuels and chemicals, isobutanol (IB) and 3-methyl-1-butanol (3M1B) have gained increasing attention due to their superior physical properties, such as high energy density, low water...
Anaerobic digestion (AD) or acidogenic fermentation (AF) of biomass can generate either biogas fuel or C2 ‒ C8 volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as feedstocks for synthesis of other petrochemical products. Typical AD feedstocks require large amounts of land that could otherwise be used for food production. Unlike these traditional bioenergy crops, plants using the crassulacean acid...
Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) are versatile enzymes capable of oxidizing a broad range of substrates, using hydrogen peroxide as the sole co-substrate. In this study, UPOs were evaluated for their potential in the selective oxyfunctionalization of the phenolic lignin monomer 4-propylguaiacol (4-PG) to generate versatile scaffolds for the synthesis of high-value compounds. In...
A deployable, continuous enzymatic hydrolysis (CEH) process can address cost and commercialization risks associated with second-generation (Gen2) biorefinery sugar/lignin/ethanol production while contributing to energy supply and security. Developments in commercial enzymatic hydrolysis formulations targeting Gen2 pretreated biomass such as deacetylated mechanically refined (DMR...
Plant specialised metabolism generates a vast array of compounds with significant potential across agriculture, medicine, cosmetics, and the food industry. A key challenge lies in optimising their production in the plant, as these compounds are often present in trace amounts in a complex metabolic cocktail. Given their high economic value, extensive efforts have been made to...
Waste valorisation refers to processes of reusing or recycling waste materials to create valuable products. In the Rum distillery industry, the primary waste byproducts include bagasse, a solid waste made up of sugar cane residue and vinasse, a thick and acidic liquid. Although vinasse has been repurposed in agricultural fields, it has also contributed to both soil and ocean...
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as a promising technology to convert biomass and organic waste into electricity, offering an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Recent innovations in nanotechnology have significantly enhanced the performance and efficiency of MFCs by improving electron transfer rates, expanding surface areas, and optimizing the...
As outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to approach global net zero CO2 emissions by approximately 2050 to prevent warming beyond 1.5 °C and the associated environmental tipping points. Future microbial electrosynthesis (MES) systems could decrease net CO2 emissions by capturing it from industrial sources. MES is a process where electroactive...
Advancing biomethane production from anaerobic digestion (AD) is essential for building a more reliable and resilient bioenergy system. However, incomplete conversion of lignocellulose-rich agricultural waste remains a key limitation, often leaving energy-dense residues in the digestate by-product. In this study, we introduce a novel application of chelator-mediated Fenton (CMF...
Food loss and waste (FLW) generated by unsustainable linear food systems are major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although microalgal lipid production has advanced significantly for applications such as biofuels and high-value polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), the use of FLW as an alternative feedstock to cultivate lipid-rich microalgal biomass within a...
Glycoside Hydrolase family 2 (GH2) is one of the largest and most functionally diverse carbohydrate-active enzyme families. This functional diversity is an obstacle to accurate functional prediction by family assignment and has led to the accumulation of erroneous annotations in non-curated databases. We explored the sequence space of the GH2 family using Sequence-Similarity...
To stay within the planetary boundaries circularizing economy by utilizing residues is key. Bioprocesses can use abundant, but complex biogenic residues, giving access to various value-added products. To advance circularization, the feasibility of exploiting diverse biogenic residues as feedstocks for different, yet specific, bioprocesses needs to be assessed. Exemplifying the...
Many industrial applications of wood and woody biomass require harsh physicochemical pretreatments to improve the hydrophobicity and durability of the products. Environmentally friendly wood biorefineries necessitate the replacement of chemicals and energy-consuming wood processing. Here, our goal was to increase wood hydrophobicity via the ectopic expression of Jojoba...
Isoprenoids constitute a large and various number of bio-compounds, with many profitable applications in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and industrial fields. The complexity of isoprenoid molecules leads to a challenging, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly chemical synthesis of these metabolites. In addition, the awareness and desire of many consumers for products...