• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2010

Finding alternative and renewable energy sources has become an important goal for plant scientists, especially with the demand for energy increasing worldwide and the supply of fossil fuel being depleted. The most important biofuel to date is bioethanol which is produced from sugars (sucrose and starch) found in corn and sugarcane. Second generation bioethanol is targeting studies that would allow the use of the cell wall (lignocellulose) as a source of carbon by non-food plants. Plant scientists, including breeders, agronomists, physiologists and molecular biologists, are working towards the development of new and improved energy crops especially, how to design crops for bioenergy production and increased biomass generation for biofuel purposes. This review focuses on: i) the current status of first generation bioenergy production, ii) the limitations of first and second generation bioenergy, and iii) ongoing research to overcome challenging issues in second generation bioenergy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.412-418
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• 2023

The surge in the oil prices, increasing global population, climate change, and waste management problems are the major issues which have led to the development of biofuels from lignocellulosic wastes. Cellulosic or second generation (2G) bioethanol is produced from lignocellulosic biomass via pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation. Pretreatment of lignocellulose is of considerable interest due to its influence on the technical, economic and environmental sustainability of cellulosic ethanol production. In this study, furniture waste sawdust was subjected to alkaline peroxide (H₂O₂) for the production of reducing sugars. Sawdust was pretreated at different concentrations from 1-3% H₂O₂ (v/v) loadings at a pH of 11.5 for a residence time of 15-240 min at 50, 75 and 90 ℃. Optimum pretreatment conditions, such as time of reaction, operating temperature, and concentration of H₂O₂, were varied and evaluated on the basis of the amount of total reducing sugars produced. It was found that the changes in the amount of lignin directly affected the yield of reducing sugars. A maximum of 50% reduction in the lignin composition was obtained, which yielded a maximum of 75.3% total reducing sugars yield and 3.76 g/L of glucose. At optimum pretreatment conditions of 2% H₂O₂ loading at 75 ℃ for 150 min, 3.46 g/L glucose concentration with a 69.26% total reducing sugars yield was obtained after 48 hr. of the hydrolysis process. Pretreatment resulted in lowering of crystallinity and distortion of the sawdust after the pretreatment, which was further confirmed by XRD and SEM results.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.837-844
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• 2015

Carob waste is a useful raw material for the second-generation ethanol because 50% of its dry weight is sucrose, glucose, and fructose. To optimize the process, we have studied the influence of the initial concentration of sugars on the fermentation performance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With initial sugar concentrations (S₀ ) of 20 g/l, the yeasts were derepressed and the ethanol produced during the exponential phase was consumed in a diauxic phase. The rate of ethanol consumption decreased with increasing S₀ and disappeared at 250 g/l when the Crabtree effect was complete and almost all the sugar consumed was transformed into ethanol with a yield factor of 0.42 g/g. Sucrose hydrolysis was delayed at high S₀ because of glucose repression of invertase synthesis, which was triggered at concentrations above 40 g/l. At S₀ higher than 250 g/l, even when glucose had been exhausted, sucrose was hydrolyzed very slowly, probably due to an inhibition at this low water activity. Although with lower metabolic rates and longer times of fermentation, 250 g/l is considered the optimal initial concentration because it avoids the diauxic consumption of ethanol and maintains enough invertase activity to consume all the sucrose, and also avoids the inhibitions due to lower water activities at higher S₀ .

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.256-267
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• 2019

The use of low-cost substrates represents one key issue to make single cell oil production sustainable. Among low-input crops, Arundo donax L. is a perennial herbaceous rhizomatous grass containing both C5 and C6 carbohydrates. The scope of the present work was to investigate and optimize the production of lipids by the oleaginous yeast Cutaneotrichosporon curvatus from undetoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates of steam-pretreated A. donax. The growth of C. curvatus was first optimized in synthetic media, similar in terms of sugar concentration to hydrolysates, by applying the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis. Then the bioconversion of undetoxified hydrolysates was investigated. A fed-batch process for the fermentation of A. donax hydrolysates was finally implemented in a 2-L bioreactor. Under optimized conditions, the total lipid content was 64% of the dry cell weight and the lipid yield was 63% of the theoretical. The fatty acid profile of C. curvatus triglycerides contained 27% palmitic acid, 33% oleic acid and 32% linoleic acid. These results proved the potential of lipid production from A. donax, which is particularly important for their consideration as substitutes for vegetable oils in many applications such as biodiesel or bioplastics.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1403-1412
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• 2013

Ethanol fuel production from lignocellulosic biomass is emerging as one of the most important technologies for sustainable development. To use this biomass, it is necessary to circumvent the physical and chemical barriers presented by the cohesive combination of the main biomass components, which hinders the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose into fermentable sugars. This study evaluated the hydrolytic capacity of enzymes produced by yeasts, isolated from the soils of the Brazilian Cerrado biome (savannah) and the Amazon region, on sugarcane bagasse pre-treated with $H_2SO_4$. Among the 103 and 214 yeast isolates from the Minas Gerais Cerrado and the Amazon regions, 18 (17.47%) and 11 (5.14%) isolates, respectively, were cellulase-producing. Cryptococcus laurentii was prevalent and produced significant ${\beta}$-glucosidase levels, which were higher than the endo- and exoglucanase activities. In natura sugarcane bagasse was pre-treated with 2% $H_2SO_4$ for 30 min at $150^{\circ}C$. Subsequently, the obtained fibrous residue was subjected to hydrolysis using the Cryptococcus laurentii yeast enzyme extract for 72 h. This enzyme extract promoted the conversion of approximately 32% of the cellulose, of which 2.4% was glucose, after the enzymatic hydrolysis reaction, suggesting that C. laurentii is a good ${\beta}$-glucosidase producer. The results presented in this study highlight the importance of isolating microbial strains that produce enzymes of biotechnological interest, given their extensive application in biofuel production.