Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass

Dear Colleagues,

With growing concerns about the environment and the depletion of fossil fuels, agro-industrial by-products and wastes have attracted widespread interest. To close the natural carbon cycle and utilize renewable sources, various materials have been characterized and tested as feedstock for the production of biofuels and essential chemicals.

Cellulosic biomass represents an abundant and sustainable source of valuable feedstock that is truly unique for making various organic products. It includes agricultural residues (spent grains, sugarcane bagasse, and corn stover), wastes from forestry residues (sawdust and mill wastes), woody (poplar trees) and herbaceous (switchgrass) crops, and some municipal solid wastes (waste paper). Cellulosic materials can be competitive in price with petroleum and are plentiful and accessible in many regions of the world, thus opening up a new route to manufacturing organic fuels and chemicals. Functional groups that need to be introduced through an expensive multistage oil oxidation process are present in plant material ingredients cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

Many microorganisms can utilize carbohydrates obtained from lignocellulosic biomass after appropriate pretreatment as a substrate for the production of different value-added chemicals. This Special Issue aims to showcase the latest research, advancements, and innovations in  fermentation processes, utilizing lignocellulose biomass as feedstock for sustainable production of valuable chemicals. Both research manuscripts and review papers are welcome. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• New approaches in pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass;
• Characterization of various by-products and wastes as possible sources of fermentable sugars;
• Development of novel microorganisms and enzymes for the conversion of biomass into chemicals and biofuels;
• Improvements in process organization, separation, and purification methods;
• Analysis of environmental impact and economics of fermentation processes for biomass valorization.

Prof. Dr. Dragomir Yankov
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.