An integrated approach to explore a novel paradigm for biofuel production from lignocellulosic feedstocks

• Grant number: 15/50612-8
• Support type: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Duration: November 01, 2016 - July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Cooperation agreement: BBSRC, UKRI
• Principal researcher: Telma Teixeira Franco
• Grantee: Telma Teixeira Franco
• Principal researcher abroad: David Leak
• Institution abroad: University of Bath, England
• Home Institution: Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Planejamento Energético (NIPE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Adilson Roberto Gonçalves ; André Ricardo de Lima Damasio ; Carla Kazue Nakao Cavaliero ; José Maria Ferreira Jardim da Silveira ; Marcelo Mendes Brandao ; Sarita Candida Rabelo
• Associated grant(s): 17/19157-8 - BBEST 2017 - Brazilian BioEnergy Science and Technology Conference, AR.BR; 17/10367-0 - 4th European Congress of Applied Biotechnology, AR.EXT
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/16560-9 - Production of chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass, BP.IC; 20/10884-7 - Hemicellulosic hydrolysates of eucalyptus residues obtained by low severity processes: chemical composition: oligosaccharide sugars and phenolic compounds, BP.IC; 19/21609-0 - Genetic engineering of Aspergillus niger for the production of a tailor-made enzymatic cocktail, BP.DR; + associated scholarships 19/19976-4 - Lignocellulosic biomass processing using ionic liquids for biorefinery application, BP.DR; 18/16437-2 - Deciphering the effect of N-glycosylation pathway deletion in Aspergillus nidulans enzymes secretion, BP.DR; 19/13946-6 - An integrated approach to explore a novel paradigm for biofuel production from lignocellulosic feedstocks, BP.TT; 19/03200-7 - Development of a fixed-structured bed anaerobic bioreactor with assisted electron transfer for biogas production and wastewater treatment, BP.DR; 17/24503-2 - Use of agroindustrial lignocellulosic waste for the production of oligosaccharides aiming at obtaining a prebiotic agent in human health, BP.DR; 18/20173-0 - Technical and environmental assessment of sugarcane straw and eucalyptus forest residues as feedstocks for biorefineries at São Paulo State, BP.DD; 18/09893-1 - Biogas production integrated to the concept of lignocellulosic biomass: operational aspects and use of nanoparticles, BP.DR; 18/01759-4 - Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce second generation ethanol from xylooligosaccharides, BP.DR; 17/16159-0 - Optimization of cello-oligosaccharides production by enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane straw via heterologous expression of cellulolytic and oxidative enzymes, BP.DD; 17/10083-1 - GENETIC ENGINEERING OF A FUNGAL PLATFORM TO SECRETE LIGNOCELLULOLYTIC ENZYMES FOR OLIGOSACCHARIDE PRODUCTION, BP.PD; 17/15477-8 - Development of a low severity pretreatment process for the production of sugarcane straw oligosaccharides, BP.PD; 16/16306-0 - Functional and biological analyses of LPMO (Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxigenases) and accessory proteins (non-CAZymes) for degradation of sugarcane straw by filamentous fungi, BP.PD - associated scholarships

Abstract

In this project we intend to demonstrate that it is more sensible (logical and economic) not to pre-treat lignocellulose so harshly, and have a more "holistic" approach to the process delivering the desired products whilst minimising overall process energy and cost by working on the optimisation of generating partial breakdown products and ensuring that the subsequent fermentation organism is able to convert these directly to product. The most commonly employed class of fermentation organisms - yeasts - will be engineered to be able to convert the oligomeric sugars directly. However, there is a class of organisms -Geobacillus -that have been quite extensively studied by one of the UK groups, which already naturally has the propensity to utilise oligomeric sugars and can also be readily engineered to optimise key metabolic pathways. Therefore, in this project we will use a representative of this group of bacteria to compare performance with the engineered yeast. We also propose to consider three different lignocellulosic feedstocks in this study, all of which have the potential to be used for sustainable fuels and chemicals production: Brazilian cane straw - which is current left in the fields after harvesting, Miscanthus - which is grown in the UK for burning in power stations (co-firing) and has a lot of similarities to cane straw, and Eucalyptus forestry residues, which are abundant in Brazil and represent a different type of opportunity and material to evaluate. Some of the team involved will focus on developing methods to convert these to oligosaccharides that can be taken up by these new strains. This will be a combination of less severe (than currently) pre-treatment and the use of selected enzymes to produce the oligo-saccharides required. Another part of the team will focus on producing the enzymes required for these conversions to oligosaccharides, while a third group will engineer the yeast strains to use oligosaccharides of both xylose and glucose. To increase the energy efficiency of the feedstocks in the new lignocelulose mills we are going to recover chemicals and biogas from the liquid effluents, vinasse and hemicellulose hydrolysates, by integrating anaerobic digestion (AD) to the process. AD with mixed culture fermentation will improve the energy ratio bringing biogas production and fertilizers as products. Underpinning all this is the need to ensure that the outputs of this work remains relevant to the industry processes that they potentially feed into. Therefore, we have a team of LCA experts ensuring that feedstock/ product choice is appropriate, that the proposed process optimisation approaches are delivering a positive impact on process performance and pinpointing where further changes/ modifications could be made to further improve matters. (AU)

Scientific publications

(10)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BRENELLI, LIVIA B.; FIGUEIREDO, FERNANDA L.; DAMASIO, ANDRE; FRANCO, TELMA T.; RABELO, SARITA C. An integrated approach to obtain xylo-oligosaccharides from sugarcane straw: From lab to pilot scale. Bioresource Technology, v. 313, OCT 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

AVILA, PATRICIA F.; MARTINS, MANOELA; GOLDBECK, ROSANA. Enzymatic Production of Xylooligosaccharides from Alkali-Solubilized Arabinoxylan from Sugarcane Straw and Coffee Husk. BioEnergy Research, SEP 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

SANTOS, BRUNO A. S.; AZAMBUJA, SUELLEN P. H.; AVILA, PATRICIA F.; PACHECO, MARIA TERESA B.; GOLDBECK, ROSANA. n-Butanol production bySaccharomyces cerevisiaefrom protein-rich agro-industrial by-products. Brazilian Journal of Microbiology, v. 51, n. 4 SEP 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

COLA, PRISCILA; PROCOPIO, DIELLE PIEROTTI; ALVES, ADRIANA TABOSA DE CASTRO; CARNEVALLI, LUCIANA REBELO; SAMPAIO, ICARO VIANA; DA COSTA, BRUNO LABATE VALE; BASSO, THIAGO OLITTA. Differential effects of major inhibitory compounds from sugarcane-based lignocellulosic hydrolysates on the physiology of yeast strains and lactic acid bacteria. Biotechnology Letters, v. 42, n. 4, p. 571-582, APR 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

AVILA, PATRICIA F.; FRANCO CAIRO, JOAO PAULO L.; DAMASIO, ANDRE; FORTE, MARCUS B. S.; GOLDBECK, ROSANA. Xylooligosaccharides production from a sugarcane biomass mixture: Effects of commercial enzyme combinations on bagasse/straw hydrolysis pretreated using different strategies. Food Research International, v. 128, FEB 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

DA SILVA ROMERO, CRISTHY WILLY; BERNI, MAURO DONIZETI; DANTAS ARAUJO FIGUEIREDO, GLEYCE KELLY; FRANCO, TELMA TEIXEIRA; CAMARGO LAMPARELLI, RUBENS AUGUSTO. Assessment of agricultural biomass residues to replace fossil fuel and hydroelectric power energy: A spatial approach. ENERGY SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, v. 7, n. 6 SEP 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

FERRARI, FELIPE AUGUSTO; BRANDAO PEREIRA, JORGE FERNANDO; WITKAMP, GEERT-JAN; SOARES FORTE, MARCUS BRUNO. Which Variables Matter for Process Design and Scale-Up? A Study of Sugar Cane Straw Pretreatment Using Low-Cost and Easily Synthesizable Ionic Liquids. ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, v. 7, n. 15, p. 12779-12788, AUG 5 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

AZAMBUJA, SUEELLEN P. H.; TEIXEIRA, GLEIDSON S.; ANDRIETTA, MARIA G. S.; TORRES-MAYANGA, PAULO C.; FORSTER-CARNEIRO, TANIA; ROSA, CARLOS A.; GOLDBECK, ROSANA. Analysis of metabolite profiles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains suitable for butanol production. FEMS Microbiology Letters, v. 366, n. 13 JUL 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

SODRE, VICTORIA; ARAUJO, JUSCEMACIA NASCIMENTO; GONCALVES, THIAGO AUGUSTO; VILELA, NATHALIA; KIMUS BRAZ, ANTONIO SERGIO; FRANCO, TELMA TEIXEIRA; NETO, MARIO DE OLIVEIRA; DE LIMA DAMASIO, ANDRE RICARDO; GARCIA, WANIUS; SQUINA, FABIO MARCIO. An alkaline active feruloyl-CoA synthetase from soil metagenome as a potential key enzyme for lignin valorization strategies. PLoS One, v. 14, n. 2 FEB 25 2019. Web of Science Citations: 1.

CRIVELENTE HORTA, MARIA AUGUSTA; FERREIRA FILHO, JAIRE ALVES; MURAD, NATALIA FARAJ; SANTOS, EIDY DE OLIVEIRA; DOS SANTOS, CLELTON APARECIDO; MENDES, JULIANO SALES; BRANDAO, MARCELO MENDES; AZZONI, SINDELIA FREITAS; DE SOUZA, ANETE PEREIRA. Network of proteins, enzymes and genes linked to biomass degradation shared by Trichoderma species. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v. 8, JAN 22 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.