Microbial lignocellulolytic enzymes: industrial applications and future perspectives

Abstract

The demand for microbial industrial enzymes is ever increasing due to their use in a wide variety of processes. Lignocellulolytic enzymes have potential applications in a large number of fields, including the chemical, fuel, food, agricultural, paper, textile and cosmetic industrial sectors. Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable resource composed of cellulose (a polymer of glucose that represents the major fraction of lignocellulose), hemicellulose (also a sugar polymer) and lignin (a complex phenylpropane polymer). Lignocellulosic material can be broken down by microorganisms into its sugar components, thereby providing a readily fermentable substrate. One of the most significant potential applications of lignocellulolytic enzymes is fuel production from agricultural and forest wastes as an alternative renewable energy resource. The need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions provides an additional incentive for the development of processes for production of fuels from lignocellulosic biomass and has attracted the interest of biotechnologists and microbiologists in recent decades.