Glucose Production from Biomass–Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Catalysis

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomass Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 2506

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Instituto de Tecnología Química (UPV-CSIC), Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Avenida de los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Interests: heterogeneous catalysis; reaction mechanisms on molecular scale; biomass transformation; hydrothermal carboniation; biomass platform molecules; fine chemicals
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School of Science, G S F C University, Vadodara – 391 750, Gujarat, India
Interests: mass spectrometry; chemical analysis; environmental analysis; high-performance liquid chromatography

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Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Technology and Engineering, The Maharaja Sayajirao, University of Baroda, Vadodara 390 001, Gujarat, India
Interests: carbon dioxide absorption
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Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Technology and Engineering, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara – 390 001, Gujarat, India
Interests: polymer chemistry; carbon materials; fullerenes; surfactant chemistry; analytical chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Glucose from biomass is the economic driver for the upcoming biorefinery.  Among the three vital components of biomass, namely, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, cellulose forms the purest source of glucose.  Cellullose, a linear biopolymer of glucose, constitutes the major fraction (30-40 wt.%) of biomass.  Selective depolymerization or hydrolysis of cellulose leads to the formation of glucose.  However, owing to the extensive hydrogen bonding network (intermolecular and intramolecular) prevailing in the cellulose, hydrolysis of cellulose is tough and indeed it is two orders of magnitude tougher than the hydrolysis of starch. Thus, selective production of glucose from ellulose is a challenge.  Extensive research efforts are currently devoted to the development of solid acid catalysts that could substitute mineral acids like HCl and H2SO4 for the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose.  In addition, unconventional activation techniques like microwave irradiation, sonochemical irradiation and electricity are used as means to accelerate the selective production of glucose from biomass.  Biomass fractionation to cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin comprise of the vital step towards the commercialization of glucose production from cellulose.  Once the know-how for the selective,  atom-efficient and environmentally benign glucose production process is available, diversification of glucose to many important biochemical, biofertilizers, biofuels and biomaterials can be accomplished with ease and spontaneity.  Any successful process for glucose production from biomass must address the three key aspects of the chemical/biochemical conversion process, namely, kinetics, thermodynamics and catalysis and this forms the core of the current Special Issue.  We do hope enthusiastic contribution from the scientific fraternity around the globe for making the know-how to produce glucose at commercial scale available for the upcoming biorefinery facility.

Dr. Michael Renz
Dr. Indra Neel Pulidindi
Dr. Santhosh Kumar Koppula
Dr. Pankaj Sharma
Dr. Vaishali Suthar
Prof. Dr. Aharon Gedanken
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • glucose
  • biomass
  • fractionation
  • cellulose
  • hemicellulose
  • lignin
  • solid acid
  • catalyst
  • kinetics
  • thermodynamics
  • catalysis

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1019 KiB  
Article
Mathematical Modeling of the Kinetics of Glucose Production by Batch Enzymatic Hydrolysis from Algal Biomass
by Samuel Oliveira, Fernando Paz-Cedeno and Fernando Masarin
Catalysts 2025, 15(4), 371; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal15040371 - 11 Apr 2025
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Abstract
The processing of Kappaphycus alvarezii algae to obtain carrageenan (polysaccharide) generates a residue composed mainly of glucans and galactans that can be converted to monosaccharides, making these algae a renewable feedstock that can be used to produce biofuels. This residue was subjected to [...] Read more.
The processing of Kappaphycus alvarezii algae to obtain carrageenan (polysaccharide) generates a residue composed mainly of glucans and galactans that can be converted to monosaccharides, making these algae a renewable feedstock that can be used to produce biofuels. This residue was subjected to batch enzyme hydrolysis with different commercial enzymatic cocktails, achieving, after 72 h of reaction time, a complete conversion of glucan to glucose for all the cocktails used. A simple mathematical model, based on a semi-empirical approach, was proposed to describe the behavior of the experimental data. The temporal profile of glucose concentration was obtained by direct analytical integration of the mathematical model, resulting in an explicit equation as a time function. Estimation of the model parameters was carried out by non-linear regression, using the least squares criterion, together with the Levenberg–Marquardt method. The quality of the model fit was evaluated by specific statistical criteria, including Fisher’s F test, the R2 value, and the p-value test. The accuracy of the model was considered acceptable (p-value < 0.05 and R2 ≥ 0.98), enabling its use in subsequent studies aimed at improving the enzymatic hydrolysis process under similar experimental conditions. Full article
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16 pages, 10944 KiB  
Article
Targeted Directed Evolution of an α-L-Rhamnosidase on Hesperidin Through Six-Codon Combinatorial Mutagenesis
by Bingbing Wu, Xueting Hou, Na Han, Xinfeng Li, Bin-Chun Li and Guo-Bin Ding
Catalysts 2024, 14(12), 935; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal14120935 - 18 Dec 2024
Viewed by 683
Abstract
Targeted saturation mutagenesis at the residues located at the substrate-binding pocket for generating focused libraries has emerged as the technique of choice for enzyme engineering, but choosing the optimal residue number of the randomization site and the reduced amino acid alphabet to minimize [...] Read more.
Targeted saturation mutagenesis at the residues located at the substrate-binding pocket for generating focused libraries has emerged as the technique of choice for enzyme engineering, but choosing the optimal residue number of the randomization site and the reduced amino acid alphabet to minimize the labor-determining screening effort remains a challenge. Herein, we propose the six-codon combinatorial mutagenesis (SCCM) strategy by using the BMT degeneracy codons encoding six amino acids with different chemical properties as the building blocks for the randomization of the amnio acid motif. SCCM requires only a small library of 646 clones for 95% coverage at the three-residue motif compared to conventional NNK degeneracy codons encoding all 20 canonical amino acids and requiring the screening of nearly 100,000 clones. SCCM generates a suitable number of mutant libraries, providing a new strategy for reducing the screening workload of saturated combination mutations in enzyme engineering. Using this approach, the α-L-rhamnosidase BtRha78A from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron had been successfully engineered for improving the hydrolytic activity on natural flavonoid diglycoside hesperidin via targeted directed evolution at the motifs positioning the entrance of the substrate-binding pocket. The results indicate that the conversion rates of the four mutants on hesperidin were increased by more than 30% compared with the wild type using whole-cell biotransformation. Moreover, the catalytic efficiency kcat/KM value of the mutant TM1-6-F5 was 1.4-fold higher than that of the wild type. Full article
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