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Sustainable bioproduction usingcarbon neutral feedstocks, especially lignocellulosic biomass, has attracted increasing attention due to concern over climate change and carbon reduction. Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of lignocellulosic biomass using recombinantyeast of Saccharomyces cerevisiaeis a promising strategy forlignocellulosic biorefinery. However, the economic viability is restricted by low enzyme secretion levels.For more efficient CBP, MIG1

Cell self-flocculation endows yeast strains with improved environmental stress tolerance that benefits bioproduction. Exploration of the metabolic and regulatory network differences between the flocculating and non-flocculating cells is conducive to developing strains with satisfactory fermentation efficiency. In this work, integrated analyses of transcriptome, proteome, and phosphoproteome were performed using flocculating yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae SPSC01 and its non-flocculating mutant grown under acetic acid stress, and the results revealed prominent changes in protein kinases. Overexpressing the mitogen-activated protein kinase Hog1 upregulated by flocculation led to reduced ROS accumulation and increased glutathione peroxidase activity, leading to improved ethanol production under stress. Among the seven genes encoding protein kinases that were tested, AKL1 showed the best performance when overexpressed, achieving higher ethanol productivity in both corncob hydrolysate and simulated corn stover hydrolysate. These results provide alternative strategies for improving cellulosic ethanol production by engineering key protein kinases in S. cerevisiae.

The present study was focused on evaluating the bioenergy potential of waste biomass of desert plant Calotropis procera. The biomass was pyrolyzed at four heating rates including 10 °Cmin−1, 20 °Cmin−1, 40 °Cmin−1, and 80 °Cmin−1. The pyrolysis reaction kinetics and thermodynamics parameters were assessed using isoconversional models namely Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, and Starink. Major pyrolysis reaction occurred between 200 and 450 °C at the conversion points (α) ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 while their corresponding reaction parameters including activation energy, enthalpy change, Gibb’s free energy and pre-exponential factors were ranged from 165 to 207 kJ mol−1, 169–200 kJ mol−1, 90–42 kJ mol−1, and 1018–1026 s−1, respectively. The narrow range of pre-exponential factors indicated a uniform pyrolysis, while lower differences between enthalpy change and activation energies indicated that reactions were thermodynamically favorable. The evolved gases were dominated by propanoic acid, 3-hydroxy-, hydrazide, hydrazinecarboxamide and carbohydrazide followed by amines/amides, alcohols, acids, aldehydes/ketones, and esters.

The aim of this work was to study the thermal degradation of grass (Cymbopogon schoenanthus) under an inert environment at three heating rates, including 10, 30, and 50°Cmin-1 in order to evaluate its bioenergy potential. Pyrolysis experiments were performed in a simultaneous Thermogravimetry-Differential Scanning Calorimetry analyzer. Thermal data were used to analyze kinetic parameters through isoconversional models of Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose (KSA) methods. The pre-exponential factors values have shown the reaction to follow first order kinetics. Activation energy values were shown to be 84-193 and 96-192kJmol-1 as calculated by KSA and FWO methods, respectively. Differences between activation energy and enthalpy of reaction values (∼5 to 6kJmol-1) showed product formation is favorable. The Gibb's free energy (173-177kJmol-1) and High Heating Value (15.00MJkg-1) have shown the considerable bioenergy potential of this low-cost biomass.

Jerusalem artichoke (JA) is a potential energy crop for biorefinery due to its unique agronomic traits such as resistance to environmental stresses and high biomass yield in marginal lands. Although JA tubers have been explored for inulin extraction and biofuels production, there is little concern on its stalk (JAS). In this article, the pretreatment of JAS by alkaline hydrogen peroxide was optimized using the response surface methodology to improve sugars yield and reduce chemicals usage. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis were applied to characterize the structures of the pretreated JAS to evaluate the effectiveness of the pretreatment. Furthermore, the feeding of the pretreated JAS and cellulase was performed for high solid uploading (up to 30%) to increase ethanol titer, and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with 55.6g/L ethanol produced, 36.5% more than that produced through separate hydrolysis and fermentation, was validated to be more efficient.

This study evaluated the bioenergy potential of Wolffia arrhiza via pyrolysis. The biomass was collected from the pond receiving city wastewater. Oven dried powdered biomass was exposed to thermal degradation at three heating rates (10, 30 and 50° C min−1) using Thermogravimetry–Differential Scanning Calorimetry analyzer in an inert environment. Data obtained were subjected to the isoconversional models of Kissenger-Akahira-Sunose (KSA) and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) to elucidate the reaction chemistry. Kinetic parameters including, Ea (136–172 kJmol−1) and Gibb’s free energy (171 kJmol−1) showed the remarkable bioenergy potential of the biomass. The average enthalpies indicated that the product formation is favored during pyrolysis. Advanced coupled TG-FTIR-MS analyses showed the evolved gases to contain the compounds containing C O functional groups (aldehydes, ketones), aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons as major pyrolytic products. This low-cost abundant biomass may be used to produce energy and chemicals in a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly way.

This work was focused on understanding the pyrolysis of Typha latifolia. Kinetics, thermodynamics parameters and pyrolysis reaction mechanism were studied using thermogravimetric data. Based on activation energies and conversion points, two regions of pyrolysis were established. Region-I occurred between the conversion rate 0.1-0.4 with peak temperatures 538K, 555K, 556K at the heating rates of 10Kmin-1, 30Kmin-1, and 50Kmin-1, respectively. Similarly, the Region-II occurred between 0.4 and 0.8 with peak temperatures of 606K, 621K, 623K at same heating rates. The best model was diffusion mechanism in Region-I. In Region-II, the reaction order was shown to be 2nd and 3rd. The values of activation energy calculated using FWO and KAS methods (134-204kJmol-1) remained same in both regions reflecting that the best reaction mechanism was predicted. Kinetics and thermodynamic parameters including E, ΔH, ΔS, ΔG shown that T. latifolia biomass is a remarkable feedstock for bioenergy.

Cellulase is a prerequisite for the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass, but its high cost presents the biggest challenge. In this article, low-cost mixture was produced from glucose through the transglycosylation reaction catalyzed by β-glucosidase for cellulase overproduction by Trichodema reesei RUT C30. As a result, cellulase titer of 90.3FPU/mL, which was more than 10 folds of that achieved with lactose as inducer, was achieved at 144h. Meanwhile, cellulase productivity was drastically increased to 627.1FPU/L/h, at least 3-5 folds higher than previously reported by the fungal species. The crude enzyme was further tested by hydrolyzing NaOH-pretreated corn stover with 15% solid loading, and 96.6g/L glucose was released with 92.6% sugar yield at 96h and 44.8g/L ethanol was obtained.

Instant catapult steam explosion (ICSE) offers enormous physical force on lignocellulosic biomass due to its extremely short depressure duration. In this article, the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the effect of working parameters including pressure, maintaining time and mass loading on the crystallinity index and glucose yield of the pretreated corn stover. It was found that the pressure was of essential importance, which determined the physical force that led to the morphological changes without significant chemical reactions, and on the other hand the maintaining time mainly contributed to the thermo-chemical reactions. Furthermore, the pretreated biomass was assessed by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectra to understand mechanisms underlying the ICSE pretreatment.