Volume 2 • Issue 5 • 1000e112J Biotechnol BiomaterISSN:2155-952X JBTBM an open access journal

Editorial Open Access

Nasir Iqbal and Kamal, J Biotechnol Biomater 2012, 2:5 DOI: 10.4172/2155-952X.1000e112

*Corresponding author: Hafiz Muhammad Nasir Iqbal, Industrial Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, E-mail: nasir_pk99@hotmail.com

Received August 22, 2012; Accepted August 24, 2012; Published August 26, 2012

Citation: Nasir Iqbal HM, Kamal S (2012) Economical Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Materials to Value-Added Products. J Biotechnol Biomater 2:e112. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000e112

Copyright: © 2012 Nasir Iqbal HM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Economical Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Materials to Value-Added ProductsHafiz Muhammad Nasir Iqbal1* and Shagufta Kamal1,2

1Industrial Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2Department of Chemistry, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan

AbstractIn serious consideration of the worldwide economic and environmental issues associated with the extensive

use of the fuels, scientists across the world are in search of a suitable alternative to the fast depleting fossil fuel resources. To expand the range of natural resources, researchers have been re-directing their interests in biomass based bio-fuels, which can be obtained from lignocellulosic waste materials. Because of its renewable nature and most abundant availability now it has attracted considerable attention as an alternate feed stock and energy source. The lignin component should be utilized as a feedstock for value-added green chemistry product which currently seems to be the only logical alternative for sustainable development. An economical bioconversion of these materials to value-added products is a potential barrier between the current industrial demand and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass fermentation. In current pre-treatment scenario ligninolytic enzymes could provide an effective and significant alternative means for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into the products of interest, i.e. liquid bio-fuels. During the last several years considerable improvement in many processes related to lignocellulose biotechnology has appeared and triggered in-depth studies of lignocellulosic materials, ligninolytic microorganisms and their enzymes.

Keywords: Lignicellulosic material; Green chemistry; Bio-fuel; Pre-treatment

BackgroundLignocellulosic materials are the most promising feedstock as

natural, abundant, and renewable resource and can potentially provide a long term sustainable fuel supply [1]. Increasing costs of fossil fuels and their greenhouse gases emission effects are creating a dire need to explore cheaper and environment friendly bio-fuels as a strategy for reducing global warming. Currently, bio-ethanol is produced on industrial scale from sucrose and starch based grains; however, these bio-ethanol production systems pose concerns about competition with food and feed supplies. However, the feed stocks for bio-ethanol production should be derived from inedible parts of food crops, in order to avoid direct competition between bio-ethanol and food productions. One potential method for the low-cost fermentative production of ethanol is to utilize lignocellulosic or agro-industrial waste materials (e.g. wood, straw, switch grass, banana waste, wheat straw, rice straw, corn stover, corn cobs, sugar cane bagasse, apple pomace, orange peel, and paper waste) because they contain carbohydrates that must be first converted into simple sugars (glucose) and then fermented into ethanol [2]. A few years ago these wastes were considered as a major source of environmental/ecological pollution but now they have gained a special importance because of their renewable nature [3]. However, large-scale economical commercial production of fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic materials has still not been implemented. Because the transformation of biological resources like energy-rich crops or lignocellulosic biomass requires pre-treatment of the feedstock for fermenting and to convert them into ethanol.

In industrial scale ethanol production from lignocellulosic residues, the alkali pre-treatment of substrates for removal of lignin barrier is one of the bottle neck problems because it substantially adds to the overall production cost and also contributes to environmental issues. There is a dire need to develop a cheaper biological process for de-lignifications of lignocellulosic biomass. In current scenario pre-treatment has been considered to be one of the most expensive steps in the process of lignocellulose to ethanol conversion. An effective pre-

treatment aims at reducing the size of biomass particles, minimizing the loss of both hexoses and pentoses, maximizing lignin removal, and reducing the overall cost of the process. Recent advances in characterization of ligninolytic enzymes involved in degradation of lignin have given new impetus to the research in this area which has now become amenable to the biotechnological exploitation [1,4]. Bio-delignification is useful in the pre-treatment and replaces the chemical based pre-treatments which include mechanical treatment with acid, alkali, and steam explosion.

ConclusionEnvironmental pollution awareness and the demand for green

chemistry technology have drawn considerable attention to develop new technologies aiming at especially liquid bio-fuels suitable as transportation fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass provides a noteworthy solution in respect to the direct competition with food stuff, therefore, should be the favored as a raw material for liquid bio-fuels of future. In this regard lignocellulosic biomass holds considerable potential for renewable fuels like bio-ethanol production to meet the current energy demand of the modern world. Although the main challenge facing lignolellulosic materials utilization is the high costs involved in treatment and production processes. In conclusion enzymatic de-lignifications treatment of waste biomass could be of particular interest, since it seems an eco-friendly approach to carry out waste biomass

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echnology &Biomaterials

ISSN: 2155-952X

Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials

Citation: Nasir Iqbal HM, Kamal S (2012) Economical Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Materials to Value-Added Products. J Biotechnol Biomater 2:e112. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000e112

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Volume 2 • Issue 5 • 1000e112J Biotechnol BiomaterISSN:2155-952X JBTBM an open access journal

treatment and concomitant glucose production that can be further use for bio-ethanol production. In current scenario future trends are being directed to enzyme based biotechnology and genetic engineering for improved processes and products. To overcome the current energy problems it is envisaged that lignolellulosic materials in addition of green chemistry will be the main focus of the future research.

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