Microbial Culture and Isolation for the Production of Biofuels

A special issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbial Metabolism, Physiology & Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 1468

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Life Science, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
Interests: biomass; biofuel; microorganisms

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biofuel is a biomass-derived type of energy and is expected to replace conventional energy (such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas). While some biofuel is produced by a physio-chemical reaction, most of it can be produced by microbes. Therefore, the isolation and characterization of microorganisms that produce biofuel or its precursor compounds, as well as the development of microbial and its enzyme technology for efficient biofuel production, received attention from the standpoint of future industrial applications.

The Special Issue on “Microbial Culture and Isolation for the Production of Biofuels” welcomes research articles relevant to technologies used for the microbial production of biofuels (bioethanol and other alcohol, biodiesel, biocrude, and biogas) and the isolation and biochemical/physiological characterization of microorganisms that can be used for future applications as an environmentally friendly technology. Articles for a simple taxonomic or phylogenic studies of microbes are not considered for publication.

Dr. Katsuhiko Fujii
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biofuel
  • microorganisms
  • biotechnology
  • biomass
  • sustainable society
  • SDG
  • carbon neutrality

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2920 KiB  
Article
Biogas Upgrading by Wild Alkaliphilic Microalgae and the Application Potential of Their Biomass in the Carbon Capture and Utilization Technology
by Yuri Kikuchi, Daichi Kanai, Kenjiro Sugiyama and Katsuhiko Fujii
Fermentation 2024, 10(3), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10030134 - 28 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1213
Abstract
Although biogas is a renewable energy source alternative to natural gas, it contains approximately 40 vol% CO2 and, hence, a low calorific value. The sequestration of CO2 from biogas is, therefore, essential before its widespread use. As CO2 can be [...] Read more.
Although biogas is a renewable energy source alternative to natural gas, it contains approximately 40 vol% CO2 and, hence, a low calorific value. The sequestration of CO2 from biogas is, therefore, essential before its widespread use. As CO2 can be easily solubilized as carbonate and bicarbonate in alkaline water, in this study, we isolated and characterized alkaliphilic wild microalgae that grow under high-level CO2 conditions and evaluated their application potential in CO2-removal from biogas. For this purpose, freshwater samples were enriched with 10 vol% CO2 and an alkaline culture medium (pH 9.0), wherein almost free CO2 was converted to carbonate and bicarbonate to yield alkaliphilic and high-level CO2-tolerant microalgae. Ten microalgal strains of Micractinium, Chlorella, Scenedesmus/Tetradesmus, or Desmodesmus spp. were isolated, some of which demonstrated good growth even under conditions of >pH 10 and >30 vol% CO2. All algal strains grew well through fixing biogas-derived CO2 in a vial-scale biogas upgrading experiment, which reduced the CO2 level in biogas to an undetectable level. These strains yielded antioxidant carotenoids, including lutein, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene, particularly rich in lutein (up to 7.3 mg/g dry cells). In addition, these strains contained essential amino acids, accounting for 42.9 mol% of the total amino acids on average, and they were rich in unsaturated fatty acids (comprising 62.2 wt% of total fatty acids). The present study identified strains that can contribute to biogas upgrading technology, and the present findings suggest that their biomass can serve as useful raw material across the food, nutraceutical, and feed industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Culture and Isolation for the Production of Biofuels)
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