Biological Pretreatment Service

In order to increase the bioenergy yield as much as possible, the biomass material needs to be pretreated first in the process of bioenergy production, thereby increasing the conversion rate of the biomass material. In addition to physical pretreatment, chemical pretreatment, and physicochemical pretreatment, biological pretreatment is also an effective and commonly utilized method to preprocess biomass materials. Lifeasible provides multiple technical support services related to biological pretreatment technologies, including technical consulting, project design, and program optimization services. Lifeasible guarantees to provide high quality technical support services and be committed to solving various technical difficulties in biological pretreatment processes.

Biological pretreatment refers to the pretreatment technology that uses microorganisms to modify the chemical composition and/or structure of the lignocellulosic biomass so that the modified biomass materials are more amenable to enzyme digestion. Microorganisms used in biological pretreatment can be either fungi or bacteria. Compared with several other pretreatment methods, biological pretreatment has milder reaction conditions (e.g., pH, temperature), lower energy consumption, less pollution, and can effectively increase the output of bioenergy.

Bacterial pretreatment

Bacteria have the advantages of fast reproduction speed and easy cultivation, and bacteria that can be used for biomass pretreatment are particularly diverse. There are many naturally occurring bacteria that can effectively break down cellulose. For example, Paenibacillus campinasensis is a type of cellulolytic bacteria that can survive in harsh conditions, and have great potential in cellulose degradation. In addition, Firmicutes, Pseudomonas, and Buttiauxella are all cellulase-producing bacteria that can be used in biological pretreatment to promote cellulose degradation. Different bacteria are suitable for different biomass materials in the pretreatment process, selecting more effective strains is the key to biological pretreatment and is closely related to bioenergy yield.

Fungal pretreatment

Fungal pretreatment is to utilize fungal to produce enzymes to degrade biomass materials to achieve the purpose of pretreatment. These enzymes include cellulolytic enzymes, hemicellulolytic enzymes, ligninolytic enzymes and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMO), etc.. Ligninolytic enzymes are found in the ascomycetes and basiidiomycetes that contain white-rot fungi and brown-rot fungi. For example, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, can selectively degrade lignin by producing a wide variety of enzymes—laccase, lignin peroxidase (LiP), and manganese peroxidase (MnP). Cellulolytic enzymes include endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, and exoglucanase or cellobiohydrolase. They can hydrolyze cellulose to glucose through a synergistic effect. The common cellulase producers include Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Clostridium sp., Thermomonospora sp.,Cellulomonas sp., Trichoderma sp., Aspergillus sp.. Hemicellulolytic enzymes include glycoside hydrolase and carbohydrate esterase. Xylanase, a hemicellulolytic enzyme, is produced from T. reesei, A. niger, Humicola insolens, and Bacillus sp. LPMO can destroy the glycosidic bonds in cellulose, and can work synergistically with hydrolytic enzymes to promote its hydrolytic activity.

Enzymatic pretreatment

Except for usage of microorganisms, we can employ pure enzymes derived from the same organisms as in pretreatment with bacteria or fungi directly. This is called enzymatic pretreatment.

As a type of pretreatment technology with less pollution and lower cost, biological pretreatment has broad application prospects in bioenergy production. However, because there are many types of bacteria, fungi and enzymes, the choice of microorganisms and enzymes is critical. Our expert team has rich expertise in the field of biological pretreatment, and can provide you with high quality technical support services in the pretreatment process. Lifeasible can not only help you solve technical problems in pretreatment, but also help you design the personalized pretreatment project, or optimize the existing programs. If you are seeking technical support services in biological pretreatment, Lifeasible is your good choice. Please feel free to contact us.