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Fermentation
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Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass
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Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass

A special issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637). This special issue belongs to the section "Industrial Fermentation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1336

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Dragomir Yankov

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: kinetics and modelling of enzyme processes; separation processes in biotechnology

Special Issue Information

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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.

Keywords

  • lignocellulosic biomass
  • waste and industrial by-product valorization
  • biomass pretreatment
  • microorganism strain development
  • detoxification of pretreated biomass substrates
  • biomass-based materials and chemicals
  • biogas, bioethanol, and biohydrogen
  • fermentation processes optimization and modeling
  • product separation and purification
  • process integration

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2303 KiB  
Article
Bioproduction of Nordihydroguaiaretic and Ellagic Acid from Creosote Bush Leaves (Larrea tridentata) Using Solid-State Fermentation with Aspergillus niger GH1
by Alonso Ascacio-Valdés, Cynthia L. Barrera-Martínez, Juan A. Ascacio-Valdés and Leonardo Sepúlveda
Fermentation 2025, 11(4), 229; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation11040229 - 19 Apr 2025
Viewed by 274
Abstract
Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), a shrub distributed across approximately 19 Mha of arid North American regions, has traditional applications in folk medicine due to the presence of bioactive molecules such as nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) and ellagic acid (EA). This study investigated [...] Read more.
Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), a shrub distributed across approximately 19 Mha of arid North American regions, has traditional applications in folk medicine due to the presence of bioactive molecules such as nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) and ellagic acid (EA). This study investigated the implementation of a solid-state fermentation (SSF) optimization process employing creosote bush leaves as substrate using Aspergillus niger GH1 to improve NDGA and EA extraction. This study was based on previous research by our group that identified key parameters for NDGA production in a related SSF system. Creosote bush is a recognized source of these bioactive compounds, which possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Conventional extraction methods often exhibit limitations in efficiency and sustainability. The efficacy of A. niger GH1 in SSF has been previously established with diverse substrates. In this study, A. niger GH1 was employed in an SSF process utilizing creosote bush leaves as a substrate using a Box–Behnken experimental design. The accumulation of NDGA and EA, which were quantified by HPLC-MS, yielded values of 1.20 ± 0.32 mg g−1 for EA and 7.39 ± 0.52 mg g−1 for NDGA. In vitro antioxidant assays (DPPH and ABTS) demonstrated significant antioxidant activity, with inhibition percentages of 55.69% and 84.84%, respectively. These results indicate that A. niger GH1-mediated SSF using Creosote bush leaves is a viable and sustainable strategy for producing these valuable bioactive compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass)
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18 pages, 1246 KiB  
Article
Role of In-House Enzymatic Cocktails from Endophytic Fungi in the Saccharification of Corn Wastes Towards a Sustainable and Integrated Biorefinery Approach
by Patrísia de Oliveira Rodrigues, Anderson Gabriel Corrêa, Lucas Carvalho Basílio de Azevedo, Daniel Pasquini and Milla Alves Baffi
Fermentation 2025, 11(3), 155; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation11030155 - 19 Mar 2025
Viewed by 427
Abstract
The valorization of agri-food wastes can provide value-added products, enzymes and biofuels. For the second-generation ethanol (2G) production, pulps rich in cellulose are desirable in order to release fermentable sugars. This study investigated the homemade biosynthesis of cellulases and hemicellulases via solid-state fermentation [...] Read more.
The valorization of agri-food wastes can provide value-added products, enzymes and biofuels. For the second-generation ethanol (2G) production, pulps rich in cellulose are desirable in order to release fermentable sugars. This study investigated the homemade biosynthesis of cellulases and hemicellulases via solid-state fermentation (SSF) using sugarcane bagasse (SB) and wheat bran (WB) for the growth of endophytic fungi (Beauveria bassiana, Trichoderma asperellum, Metarhizium anisopliae and Pochonia chlamydosporia). Cocktails with high enzymatic levels were obtained, with an emphasis for M. anisopliae in the production of β-glucosidase (83.61 U/g after 288 h) and T. asperellum for xylanase (785.50 U/g after 144 h). This novel M. anisopliae β-glucosidase demonstrated acidophile and thermotolerant properties (optimum activity at pH 5.5 and 60 °C and stability in a wide pH range and up to 60 °C), which are suitable for lignocellulose saccharifications. Hence, the M. anisopliae multi-enzyme blend was selected for the hydrolysis of raw and organosolv-pretreated corn straw (CS) and corncob (CC) using 100 CBU/g cellulose. After the ethanol/water (1:1) pretreatment, solid fractions rich in cellulose (55.27 in CC and 50.70% in CS) and with low concentrations of hemicellulose and lignin were found. Pretreated CC and CS hydrolysates reached a maximum TRS release of 12.48 and 13.68 g/L, with increments of 100.80 and 73.82% in comparison to untreated biomass, respectively, emphasizing the fundamental role of a pretreatment in bioconversions. This is the first report on β-glucosidase biosynthesis using M. anisopliae and its use in biomass hydrolysis. These findings demonstrated a closed-loop strategy for internal enzyme biosynthesis integrated to reducing sugar release which would be applied for further usage in biorefineries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass)
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Review

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18 pages, 2181 KiB  
Review
Volatile Fatty Acid Production vs. Methane and Hydrogen in Anaerobic Digestion
by Venko N. Beschkov and Ivan K. Angelov
Fermentation 2025, 11(4), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation11040172 - 26 Mar 2025
Viewed by 520
Abstract
Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are inevitable intermediates of biogas production during the anaerobic digestion of organic matter. The excessive accumulation of VFAs leads to a pH drop and the strong inhibition of methanogenesis. On the other hand, VFAs are useful commodities with different [...] Read more.
Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are inevitable intermediates of biogas production during the anaerobic digestion of organic matter. The excessive accumulation of VFAs leads to a pH drop and the strong inhibition of methanogenesis. On the other hand, VFAs are useful commodities with different applications, and their fermentative production may compete with traditional production methods based on oil derivatives. The fermentation methods have commonalities with the biorefinery concept. The present review considers the methods of VFA fermentative production together with competitive simultaneous biogas and hydrogen production. Methods of the enhanced production of volatile fatty acids are presented, showing the option of integrated processes of product removal and energy production from the obtained biogas. On the basis of the present review, the following conclusion can be drawn. Volatile fatty acids (formic, acetic, propionic, and butyric ones) are useful commodities with various applications. That is why their targeted production with their desired production rate may shift the aims of the anaerobic digestion toward volatile fatty acids instead of biogas release. On the other hand, VFA production combined with biogas release can make the overall process self-consistent, with energy production sufficient to maintain the target processes using biogas for heating the digestor. The maintenance of optimum VFA concentrations can be accomplished by simultaneous VFA removal from the fermentation broth, thus integrating the product recovery with the maintenance of optimum operation conditions in the digester. The substrate preparation and the operating conditions (organic loading rate and hydraulic retention time) are of crucial importance for the successful fermentation process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fermentative Production of Valuable Chemicals from Lignocellulosic Biomass)
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