Bioprocessing for Value-Added Products from Renewable Resources

New Technologies and Applications

Shang-Tian Yang

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780080466712
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Renewable Power Resources
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Bioprocessing for Value-Added Products from Renewable Resources provides a timely review of new and unconventional techniques for manufacturing high-value products based on simple biological material. The book discusses the principles underpinning modern industrial biotechnology and describes a unique collection of novel bioprocesses for a sustainable future.

This book begins in a very structured way. It first looks at the modern technologies that form the basis for creating a bio-based industry before describing the various organisms that are suitable for bioprocessing - from bacteria to algae - as well as their unique characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of novel, experimental bioprocesses, such as the production of medicinal chemicals, the production of chiral compounds and the design of biofuel cells. The book concludes with examples where biological, renewable resources become an important feedstock for large-scale industrial production.

This book is suitable for researchers, practitioners, students, and consultants in the bioprocess and biotechnology fields, and for others who are interested in biotechnology, engineering, industrial microbiology and chemical engineering.

·Reviews the principles underpinning modern industrial biotechnology
·Provides a unique collection of novel bioprocesses for a sustainable future
·Gives examples of economical use of renewable resources as feedstocks
·Suitable for both non-experts and experts in the bioproduct industry

Chapter 1

Bioprocessing – from Biotechnology to Biorefinery

Shang-Tian Yang, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 140 West 19th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Publisher Summary

This chapter introduces some important applications of biotechnology and recent developments in bioprocessing technologies for biomass utilization. It focuses on the industrial bioconversion of renewable resources to fuels and chemicals. The concept and principles of integrated biorefineries to attain the sustainable production of food, energy, and industrial products are also presented. Bioprocessing and bioproducts have gained commercial interest because of the perceived “green” advantages of using biomass rather than fossil energy for the production of chemicals and industrial products. Other key benefits in the move toward bioproducts include the sustainability of renewable biomass, replacing depleted fossil energy, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the present petroleum-based chemical and energy industries. With rising oil prices and advances in industrial biotechnology, the potential of biomass to replace petroleum-based chemicals and fuels is huge. In the short term, starch and sugar present in crops and processing wastes continue to be the main substrates for fermentation. In the long run, lignocellulosic biomass offers the greatest potential as feedstock, but the cost of fermentable sugars derived from lignocelluloses must be significantly reduced to less than $0.10/lb.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recent advances in biotechnology and public concern about environmental pollution and the sustainability of natural resources have rapidly transformed the nation’s many manufacturing industries, from chemical to pharmaceutical, to become more environmentally benign and bio-based. For example, almost all major pharmaceutical companies now dedicate more than 50% of their new drug development to biotech R&D, a trend away from traditional chemical synthesis. Likewise, large chemical companies, such as DuPont and Dow Chemicals, are aggressively developing new bio-based products to replace petrochemical ones. Meanwhile, rising energy demands and oil prices have prompted large petroleum companies such as Shell to explore biofuels as alternative energy sources. Together with the agricultural industry expanding its product portfolios beyond traditional food and feed is the birth of an emerging biorefinery industry that promises reduced dependence on fossil energy and a truly sustainable economy [1–3].

This chapter will introduce some important applications of biotechnology and recent developments in bioprocessing technologies for biomass utilization with a focus on the industrial bioconversion of renewable resources to fuels and chemicals. The concept and principles of integrated biorefineries to attain the sustainable production of food, energy, and industrial products are also presented.

2 INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY – HISTORY AND APPLICATIONS

Biotechnology has been described as the last great technological innovation of the twentieth century and has touched upon almost every aspect of human life, from healthcare to agriculture to the production of industrial products (Figure 1). Biotechnology, broadly defined, includes any technique that uses living organisms or parts of organisms to make or modify products, improves plants or animals, or develops microorganisms for specific uses. Based on this definition, mankind has a long history of using biotechnology; in 6000 B.C. our ancestors already knew how to make fermented foods and alcoholic beverages, although the process was not elucidated until 1857, when Pasteur proved fermentation was caused by microorganisms. In the 1910s, the fermentation industry was born and soon became the main force in the production of ethanol and solvents (mainly acetone and butanol from ABE fermentation by Clostridium acetobutyricum). The fermentation industry continued to develop, with citric acid being the first organic chemical and penicillin the first drug produced by fermentation in 1923 and 1944, respectively. However, with the discovery of oil and the rapid development of the petroleum industry in the 1950s, many of bulk chemicals and solvents, including ethanol, butanol, acetic acid, and lactic acid that previously had been predominately produced from sugars by fermentation were replaced with petroleum-based products produced by chemical synthesis [3]. Not until the first oil crisis in the 1970s did people start to realize that fossil fuels are exhaustible and that the oil-based economic development is not sustainable. Although there have been extensive efforts to develop renewable energy technologies, bio-based industrial products, with a few exceptions, have not been very successful because of relatively cheap oil. However, with recent crude oil prices exceeding $70 per barrel, bio-based products become increasingly attractive.

Fig. 1 Applications of biotechnology in various market sectors.

Table 1

Historical milestones in the development of biotechnology

Year	Historical Events
6000 B.C.	Alcoholic beverages, bread, and cheese made by fermentation
1857	Pasteur proves fermentation is caused by microorganisms
1910	Fermentation industry developed (fuel & solvent production)
1923	Citric acid produced by industrial fermentation
1944	Penicillin mass-produced for Normandy landings in WWII
1953	DNA structure elucidated
1973	Recombinant DNA makes genetic engineering possible
1982	First commercial recombinant protein product (human insulin)

Until now and with only a few exceptions, most of fermentation products...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Bioprocessing – from Biotechnology to Biorefinery
• Chapter 2: Application of Genomic and Proteomic Data for Bioprocess Analysis and Optimization
• Chapter 3: Directed Evolution Tools in Bioproduct and Bioprocess Development
• Chapter 4: Metabolic Engineering – Applications, Methods, and Challenges
• Chapter 5: Amylase and Cellulase Structure and Function
• Chapter 6: Bioreactor Engineering
• Chapter 7: Membranes for Bioseparations
• Chapter 8: Bacterial and Yeast Cultures – Process Characteristics, Products, and Applications
• Chapter 9: Filamentous Fungal Cultures – Process Characteristics, Products, and Applications
• Chapter 10: Plant Cell and Hairy Root Cultures – Process Characteristics, Products, and Applications
• Chapter 11: Production of High-Value Products by Marine Microalgae Thraustochytrids
• Chapter 12: Nonconventional Biocatalysis for Production of Chemicals and Polymers from Biomass
• Chapter 13: Biocatalysis for Chiral Synthesis
• Chapter 14: Immobilized Cell Fermentation for Production of Chemicals and Fuels
• Chapter 15: Water-in-Oil Cultivation Technology for Viscous Xanthan Gum Fermentation
• Chapter 16: Extractive Fermentation for the Production of Carboxylic Acids
• Chapter 17: Fungal Fermentation for Medicinal Products
• Chapter 18: Solid State Fermentation and Its Applications
• Chapter 19: Algal Photobioreactor for Production of Lutein and Zeaxanthin
• Chapter 20: Power-Generation from Biorenewable Resources: Biocatalysis in Biofuel Cells
• Chapter 21: Biological Production of Hydrogen from Renewable Resources
• Chapter 22: Bioconversion of Whey Lactose into Microbial Exopolysaccharides
• Chapter 23: Microbial Production of Bioplastics from Renewable Resources
• Chapter 24: Industrial Applications for Plant Oils and Lipids
• Chapter 25: Value-Added Products from Animal Manure
• Index