Lignocellulosic biomass can be utilized to produce ethanol, a promising alternative energy source for sustainable energy production and has the potential to be a valuable substitute. Various pretreatment techniques change the physical and chemical structures of the lignocellulosic biomass and improve the hydrolysis rate. The cost of ethanol production from lignocellulosic material is relatively...

Thermophilic bacteria have gained increased attention as candidates for bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. This study investigated ethanol production by Thermoanaerobacter strain J1 from hydrolysates made from lignocellulosic biomass in batch cultures. The effect of increased initial glucose concentration and the partial pressure of hydrogen on end product formation were examin...

Economic processing of lignocellulosic biomass requires handling the biomass at high solids concentration. This creates challenges because concentrated biomass behaves as a Bingham-like material with large yield stresses. Here we employ torque rheometry to measure the rheological properties of concentrated lignocellulosic biomass (corn stover). Yield stresses obtained using torque rheometry agr...

Pretreatment is very important for the efficient production of value-added products from lignocellulosic biomass. However, traditional pretreatment methods have several disadvantages, including low efficiency and high pollution. This article gives an overview on the applications of ionic liquids (ILs) and IL-based solvent systems in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. It is divided int...

BACKGROUND Lignocellulosic biomass is an attractive renewable resource for future liquid transport fuel. Efficient and cost-effective production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass depends on the development of a suitable pretreatment system. The aim of this study is to investigate a new pretreatment method that is highly efficient and effective for downstream biocatalytic hydrolysis of ...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Woody biomass is one of the most abundant biomass feedstocks, besides agriculture residuals in the United States. The sustainable harvest residuals and thinnings alone are estimated at about 75 million tons/year. These forest residuals and thinnings could produce the equivalent of 5 billion gallons of lignocellulosic ethanol annually. Softwood biomass is the most recalc...

The bulk terrestrial biomass resource in a future bio-economy will be lignocellulosic biomass, which is recalcitrant and challenging to process. Enzymatic conversion of polysaccharides in the lignocellulosic biomass will be a key technology in future biorefineries and this technology is currently the subject of intensive research. We describe recent developments in enzyme technology for convers...

Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel ethanol involves pretreatments followed by enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis to generate fermentable sugars. Efficient pretreatment method can significantly enhance hydrolysis of biomass and thus reduce ethanol production cost. Cellulosic plant materials are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the cheapest source of fermentable sugars....

Second-generation feedstock, especially nonfood lignocellulosic biomass is a potential source for biofuel production. Cost-intensive physical, chemical, biological pretreatment operations and slow enzymatic hydrolysis make the overall process of lignocellulosic conversion into biofuels less economical than available fossil fuels. Lignocellulose conversions carried out at ≤ 50 °C have several li...

BACKGROUND The use of fossil carbon sources for fuels and petrochemicals has serious impacts on our environment and is unable to meet the demand in the future. A promising and sustainable alternative is to substitute fossil carbon sources with microbial cell factories converting lignocellulosic biomass into desirable value added products. However, such bioprocesses require availability of suita...