Issue 14, 2018

The environmental biorefinery: state-of-the-art on the production of hydrogen and value-added biomolecules in mixed-culture fermentation

Abstract

The environmental biorefinery consists of recovering and adding value to waste, possibly through a multi-product approach. A first implementation of such a concept is the production of methane and nutrient-rich digestate by anaerobic digestion in biogas plants. However, methane and digestate have only a low added-value and biogas plants still require feed-in tariff policies to be economically viable. The aim of this article is to provide a meta-analysis of current biomass recovery technologies compatible with environmental applications (i.e. non-sterile conditions and carried out by microbial mixed culture). The focus was particularly on those able to produce high value-added fermentation metabolites. To achieve this objective, both qualitative (e.g. substrates and pretreatments) and quantitative data (e.g. yields, productivities, and process parameters) were retrieved from 624 manually-checked research articles, excluding review papers, and 134 patents published after 1997. In addition, a straightforward market study was carried out for nine promising biomolecules: H2, ethanol, acetate, propionate, lactate, 1,3-propanediol, butyrate, caproate and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Finally, the feasibility of producing each biomolecule in the context of an environmental biorefinery is discussed in light of current process performances and their related bottlenecks.

Graphical abstract: The environmental biorefinery: state-of-the-art on the production of hydrogen and value-added biomolecules in mixed-culture fermentation

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
19 Feb 2018
Accepted
19 Jun 2018
First published
19 Jun 2018

Green Chem., 2018,20, 3159-3179

The environmental biorefinery: state-of-the-art on the production of hydrogen and value-added biomolecules in mixed-culture fermentation

R. Moscoviz, E. Trably, N. Bernet and H. Carrère, Green Chem., 2018, 20, 3159 DOI: 10.1039/C8GC00572A

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