Turning waste into value: eco-efficient recovery of by-products from biomass pretreatment in lignocellulosic biorefineries

This original research contributes to enhancing the viability of biorefineries through recovering valuable by-products from the liquid remaining after the biomass pretreatment by hot liquid water. A novel downstream processing method is developed for the recovery of acetic acid, formic acid, furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by...

Application of LCA and LCC in the early stages of wastewater treatment design: A multiple case study of brine effluents

Technological developments are opening new avenues to facilitate the circular economy through resource recovery from industrial wastewater. This paper presents the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in the development of technology solutions for the treatment of brine wastewater and recovery of by-products. Four...

Towards enhanced second-generation n-butanol production from sugarcane

Nowadays, the biotechnology industry is facing the challenge of producing suitable equivalents for petroleum-based products from renewable resources in a sustainable and economically feasible way. Finding cleaner alternatives for gasoline, fuels, and chemicals, has been the subject of research worldwide, whether for economic, geopolitical, or...

Techno-economic assessment of the use of solvents in the scale-up of microbial sesquiterpene production for fuels and fine chemicals

Sesquiterpenes are a group of versatile, 15-carbon molecules with applications ranging from fuels to fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. When produced by microbial fermentation at laboratory scale, solvents are often employed for reducing product evaporation and enhancing recovery. However, it is not clear whether this approach constitutes a...

Integration of Gas Enhanced Oil Recovery in Multiphase Fermentations for the Microbial Production of Fuels and Chemicals

In multiphase fermentations where the product forms a second liquid phase or where solvents are added for product extraction, turbulent conditions disperse the oil phase as droplets. Surface-active components (SACs) present in the fermentation broth can stabilize the product droplets thus forming an emulsion. Breaking this emulsion increases...

Perspectives for the microbial production of methyl propionate integrated with product recovery

A new approach was studied for bio-based production of methyl propionate, a precursor of methyl methacrylate. Recombinant E. coli cells were used to perform a cascade reaction in which 2-butanol is reduced to butanone using alcohol dehydrogenase, and butanone is oxidized to methyl propionate and ethyl acetate using a Baeyer-Villiger...

In-situ product recovery from fermentation broths

Life sciences will be one of the decisive factors in the 21st century. A major part of this field is the so-called white biotechnology, also known as industrial biotechnology. White biotechnology is an emerging field where bio-chemicals are produced using micro-organisms. However, the production of bio-chemicals is severely inhibited due to...

Fumaric acid production by fermentation

Abstract The potential of fumaric acid as a raw material in the polymer industry and the increment of cost of petroleum-based fumaric acid raises interest in fermentation processes for production of this compound from renewable resources. Although the chemical process yields 112% w/w fumaric acid from maleic anhydride and the fermentation...