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Applied Sciences
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Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy
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Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 April 2022) | Viewed by 18544

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Chenyu Du

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, The University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
Interests: biorefining; biofuel; biochemical and biopolymers; waste valorisation; fermentation and bioprocessing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Darren Greetham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
Interests: reactive oxygen species; antioxidant activity; molecular biology; proteomics; Western blot; microbiology; biotechnology; oxidative stress; proteins; immunofluorescence staining

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Our society today relies heavily on fossil resources. The majority of energy and chemicals that we used on a daily basis are generated from crude oil, coal, natural gas, and other non-renewable sources. The increasing concerns regarding environmental issues and sustainable supplement of energy for society have created the need for the development of sustainable technologies based on renewable raw materials, such as biomass. The application of the biorefining concept, which mimics the oil refining process for the conversion of various bio-based materials to biofuels, biochemicals, and biopolymers via a systematic approach, has attracted global attention. The new bioconversion processes have substituted and supplemented many fossil-resource-based products. Valorization of conventional waste biomass and marine biomass for the production of value-added chemicals promotes the development of a circular economy, which increases the product value during its life-time.

This Special Issue will feature contributions towards “Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy”, covering the following subject areas:

(1) Advanced technologies and processes that convert biomass to value-added products, including biofuels, biochemicals, and biopolymers;  

(2) Advanced tools and methodologies to understand, simulate, evaluate, and optimize bioconversion processes;

(3) Systematic review of recent progress in the biorefinery and bioenergy field.

Dr. Chenyu Du
Dr. Darren Greetham
Guest Editors

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. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • biorefinery
  • bioenergy
  • biofuel
  • biomass
  • biochemical
  • fermentation
  • waste valorization
  • sustainability

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6219 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Bioethanol Production Potential of Miscanthus Cultivars
by William Turner, Darren Greetham, Michal Mos, Michael Squance, Jason Kam and Chenyu Du
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(21), 9949; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11219949 - 25 Oct 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2523
Abstract
Miscanthus is a fast-growing perennial grass that attracts significant attention for its potential application as a feedstock for bioethanol production. This report explores the difference in the lignocellulosic composition of various Miscanthus cultivars, including Miscanthus × giganteus cultivated at the same location (mainly [...] Read more.
Miscanthus is a fast-growing perennial grass that attracts significant attention for its potential application as a feedstock for bioethanol production. This report explores the difference in the lignocellulosic composition of various Miscanthus cultivars, including Miscanthus × giganteus cultivated at the same location (mainly Lincoln, UK). It also assesses the sugar release profiles and mineral composition profiles of five Miscanthus cultivars harvested over a growing period from November 2018 to February 2019. The results showed that Miscanthus × giganteus contains approximately 45.5% cellulose, 29.2% hemicellulose and 23.8% lignin (dry weight, w/w). Other cultivars of Miscanthus also contain high quantities of carbohydrates (cellulose 41.1–46.0%, hemicellulose 24.3–32.6% and lignin 21.4–24.9%). Pre-treatment of Miscanthus using dilute acid followed by enzymatic hydrolysis released 63.7–80.2% of the theoretical glucose content. Fermentation of a hydrolysate of Miscanthus × giganteus using Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC2592 produced 13.58 ± 1.11 g/L of ethanol from 35.13 ± 0.46 g/L of glucose, corresponding to a yield of 0.148 g/g dry weight Miscanthus biomass. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the morphology of raw and hydrolysed Miscanthus samples, which provided visual proof of Miscanthus lignocellulose degradation in these processes. The sugar release profile showed that a consequence of Miscanthus plant growth is an increase in difficulty in releasing monosaccharides from the biomass. The potassium, magnesium, sodium, sulphur and phosphorus contents in various Miscanthus cultivars were analysed. The results revealed that these elements were slowly lost from the plants during the latter part of the growing season, for a specific cultivar, until February 2019. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy)
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19 pages, 3809 KiB  
Article
Ecological Response in the Integrated Process of Biostimulation and Bioaugmentation of Diesel-Contaminated Soil
by Xiaosen Li, Yakui Chen, Xianyuan Du, Jin Zheng, Diannan Lu and Zheng Liu
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6305; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11146305 - 08 Jul 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3247
Abstract
The study applied microbial molecular biological techniques to show that 2.5% to 3.0% (w/w) of diesel in the soil reduced the types and number of bacteria in the soil and destroyed the microbial communities responsible for the nitrogen cycle. [...] Read more.
The study applied microbial molecular biological techniques to show that 2.5% to 3.0% (w/w) of diesel in the soil reduced the types and number of bacteria in the soil and destroyed the microbial communities responsible for the nitrogen cycle. In the meantime, the alkane degradation gene alkB and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) degradation gene nah evolved in the contaminated soil. We evaluated four different remediation procedures, in which the biostimulation-bioaugmentation joint process reached the highest degradation rate of diesel, 59.6 ± 0.25% in 27 days. Miseq sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed that compared with uncontaminated soil, repaired soil provides abundant functional genes related to soil nitrogen cycle, and the most significant lifting effect on diesel degrading bacteria γ-proteobacteria. Quantitative analysis of degrading functional genes shows that degrading bacteria can be colonized in the soil. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) results show that the components remaining in the soil after diesel degradation are alcohol, lipids and a small amount of fatty amine compounds, which have very low toxicity to plants. In an on-site remediation experiment, the diesel content decreased from 2.7% ± 0.3 to 1.12% ± 0.1 after one month of treatment. The soil physical and chemical properties returned to normal levels, confirming the practicability of the biosimulation-bioaugmentation jointed remediation process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy)
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17 pages, 1277 KiB  
Article
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Is a Potential Food Supplement with the Capacity to Outperform Chlorella and Spirulina
by Randa Darwish, Mohamed A. Gedi, Patchaniya Akepach, Hirut Assaye, Abdelrahman S. Zaky and David A. Gray
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(19), 6736; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10196736 - 26 Sep 2020
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 10006
Abstract
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a green microalgae used as a model organism associated with biotechnological applications, yet its nutritional value has not been assessed. This study investigates the nutritional capacity of C. reinhardtii as an additional value for this species beyond its known potential [...] Read more.
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a green microalgae used as a model organism associated with biotechnological applications, yet its nutritional value has not been assessed. This study investigates the nutritional capacity of C. reinhardtii as an additional value for this species beyond its known potential in biofuels and bio-products production. The composition of key nutrients in C. reinhardtii was compared with Chlorella and Spirulina, the species widely regarded as a superfood. The results revealed that the protein content of C. reinhardtii (46.9%) was comparable with that of Chlorella (45.3) and Spirulina (50.4%) on a dry weight basis. C. reinhardtii contained all the essential amino acids with good scores based on FAO/WHO values (0.9–1.9) as in Chlorella and Spirulina. Unsaturated fatty acids predominated the total fatty acids profile of C. reinhardtii were ~74 of which ~48% are n-3 fatty acids. Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) content in C. reinhardtii (42.4%) was significantly higher than that of Chlorella (23.4) and Spirulina (0.12%). For minerals, Spirulina was rich in iron (3.73 mg/g DW) followed by Chlorella (1.34 mg/g DW) and C. reinhardtii (0.96 mg/g DW). C. reinhardtii, unlike the other two species, consisted of selenium (10 µg/g DW), and had a remarkably lower heavy metal load. Moreover, C. reinhardtii contained relatively high concentrations of chlorophyll (a + b) and total carotenoids (28.6 mg/g DW and 6.9 mg/g DW, respectively) compared with Chlorella (12.0 mg/g DW and 1.8 mg/g DW, respectively) and Spirulina (8.6 mg/g DW and 0.8 mg/g DW, respectively). This study confirms that, based on its nutrient credentials, C. reinhardtii has great potential as a new superfood or ingredient for a food supplement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy)
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26 pages, 2832 KiB  
Article
Computer-Aided Environmental Assessment Applied for Estimation of Ecological Impacts Derived from Topological Pathways Based on Lignocellulosic Biomass Transformation
by Samir Isaac Meramo-Hurtado, Plinio Puello and Julio Rodríguez
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(18), 6586; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10186586 - 21 Sep 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1922
Abstract
The growing awareness to include sustainability goals in the chemical process design has been making palpable since many governments and research institutions have made many efforts precisely to progress new ways to transform available resources into valuable chemicals. In this sense, this work [...] Read more.
The growing awareness to include sustainability goals in the chemical process design has been making palpable since many governments and research institutions have made many efforts precisely to progress new ways to transform available resources into valuable chemicals. In this sense, this work is presenting a computer-aided evaluation based on environmental impact assessment and comparison of technical parameters for estimating the potential effects of two biorefinery designs. The first process involved a multiproduct production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol from cassava waste, while the second biorefinery comprised of succinic acid and bioethanol production from a mixture of cassava waste and banana rachis. These residues are highly available in the North Colombia region due to the agroindustrial activities of that zone. The developed environmental analysis employed the waste reduction algorithm (WAR) for estimating impact generation and output rates considering atmospheric and toxicological categories. Otherwise, process simulation of biorefineries showed production of 546.3 kg/h of acetone, 280.0 kg/h of ethanol, and 1305 kg/h of butanol for topology 1, while topology 2 delivered a synthesis of 13,865.7 kg/h of acetic acid and 2277.9 kg/h of ethanol. Data generated from process simulation allowed performing a technical comparison between evaluated biorefineries, showing a higher performance of evaluated indicators for topology 2. These evaluated variables included resource energy efficiency, and production yield, among others. The environmental analysis provided relevant information, indicating that topology 2 is a better alternative from an ecological viewpoint since this design would emit substances with lower effects than topology 1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biorefinery and Bioenergy)
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