Enzymatic Cellulose Degradation

A special issue of Fibers (ISSN 2079-6439).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2019) | Viewed by 5426

Special Issue Editor

Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom
Interests: biological degradation of (ligno-)cellulose, cellulases, kinetics and electron transfer reactions of fungal oxidoreductases, lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases, enzyme engineering
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cellulose is the main structural polymer in plant cell walls and represents one of the most abundant renewable resources for the production of biofuels. However, the dense and partly crystalline structure of cellulose is a major obstacle for enzymatic degradation and remains a key challenge in industrial settings.

In nature, biomass-degrading organisms employ a variety of specialised enzymes with complementary activities to overcome the recalcitrance of cellulose. In the past decade, insights from genomic, proteomic, structural, and biochemical studies have greatly improved our understanding of this enzymatic machinery. A notable example is the discovery of the enzyme lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase, which employs a redox mechanism to cleave and de-crystallise cellulose. These continued research efforts are a main driver for the improvement of commercial enzyme formulations used in the biorefinery industry.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles or reviews related to the enzymatic degradation of cellulose in a biological or applied context. This includes proteomic, (phylo)genetic, biochemical, structural, or biophysical approaches to study cellulose-degrading or -modifying enzymes.

Dr. Daniel Kracher
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Fibers 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 2000 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

  • cellulose
  • cellulases
  • carbohydrate-active enzymes
  • oxidoreductases
  • lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases
  • cellulose degradation
  • biomass degradation
  • biorefinery

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 4111 KiB  
Article
In-Situ Vacuum Assisted Gas Stripping Recovery System for Ethanol Removal from a Column Bioreactor
by Martina Andlar, Damir Oros, Tonči Rezić, Roland Ludwig and Božidar Šantek
Fibers 2018, 6(4), 88; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fib6040088 - 09 Nov 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5070
Abstract
A three-step process consisting of biomass hydrolysis, fermentation and in-situ gas stripping by a vacuum assisted recovery system, was optimized to increase the ethanol production from sugar beet pulp. The process combines the advantages of stripping and vacuum separation and enhances the fermentation [...] Read more.
A three-step process consisting of biomass hydrolysis, fermentation and in-situ gas stripping by a vacuum assisted recovery system, was optimized to increase the ethanol production from sugar beet pulp. The process combines the advantages of stripping and vacuum separation and enhances the fermentation productivity through in-situ ethanol removal. Using the design of experiment and response surface methodology, the effect of major factors in the process, such as pressure, recycling ratio and solids concentration, was tested to efficiently remove ethanol after the combined hydrolysis and fermentation step. Statistical analysis indicates that a decreased pressure rate and an increased liquid phase recycling ratio enhance the productivity and the yield of the strip-vacuum fermentation process. The results also highlight further possibilities of this process to improve integrated bioethanol production processes. According to the statistical analysis, ethanol production is strongly influenced by recycling ratio and vacuum ratio. Mathematical models that were established for description of investigated processes can be used for the optimization of the ethanol production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Enzymatic Cellulose Degradation)
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