Consolidated bioprocessing of whole sugarcane

• Grant number: 25/05118-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Lee Howard Lynd
• Grantee: Luisa Pires Vaz
• Host Institution: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética (CBMEG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/25682-0 - Advanced second generation biofuels laboratory, AP.BIOEN.SPEC

Abstract

The lignocellulose-deconstruction capability of Clostridium thermocellum has been shown to be one of the best found in nature; it is decisively better than commercial cellulase preparations (Lynd et al., 2022) and other well-known cellulolytic anaerobic bacteria (Paye et al., 2016). Combining this native deconstruction capability with additional saccharolytic capabilities of Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum has resulted the highest solubilization on unpretreated lignocellulosic substrates by defined cultures described in literature this far (Zambello et al., 2023, Kubis et al., 2022). The added capabilities of T. thermosaccharolyticum enable hemicellulose-based carbohydrates to be utilized as C. thermocellum is specialized in taking up cellulose-based hydrolysis products. So far consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) studies aimed at solubilization and utilization have solely focused on feedstock materials for their lignocellulosic properties and content. The addition of T. thermosaccharolyticum provides opportunities to expand CBP to include carbohydrate fractions not directly originating from the lignocellulosic matrix. This would represent a potentially fundamental change in applications of CBP towards a wider range of feedstock materials. The combination of carbohydrate active enzymes between both strains enables bioprocessing of feedstocks into ethanol. As the CBP coculture has been shown to be effective on sugarcane bagasse (Zambello et al., 2023), we propose a project focused bioprocessing whole sugarcane (WSC) with CBP. The result of this project would provide important insight into overall applicability of CBP and would prompt further development opportunities.