Microbial Biorefineries: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The increase in the world population has increased the energy demand in response to the population’s needs. Fossil fuels currently supply about 80% of the world's energy. However, this energy source is non-renewable, and the reserves are diminishing. Fossil fuel combustion increases the greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, which negatively affect the climate and human health. In addition, the geopolitical contexts concerning the main fossil fuel producers generate instability and uncertainty around the world.

Replacing fossil fuels with clean and renewable forms of energy is urgent and vital to ensure the sustainability, safety, and health of humankind’s future.

Biofuels derived from microorganisms have been considered an alternative to fossil fuels since their use is cleaner and emits fewer toxic chemicals than their fossil-fuel-derived counterparts.

However, so far, microbial biofuels are not economically competitive since their price is still higher than the price of fossil fuels.

A way to overcome this hindrance consists of using microorganisms to transform low-cost substrates, such as agriculture residues and industrial by-products and wastes into biofuels, simultaneously taking advantage of all the microbial biomass fractions, as well as the products produced by the microorganisms, as an integrated process. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 42, a biorefinery is “the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of marketable products (food, feed, materials, chemicals) and energy (fuels, power, heat)”. Therefore, a holistic view of the production processes of microbial biofuels and bioproducts based on the biorefinery concept and circular economy principles is urgently needed to obtain sustainable biofuels and biocompounds derived from microorganisms. This approach will boost the value and profit obtained from the whole process, with a desired minimum environmental impact, producing sustainable biofuels and biocompounds.

The goal of this Special Issue is to publish recent and innovative research results as well as review papers on microbial biorefineries, emphasising feedstocks, processes, techniques, and products involved in this approach. If you would like to contribute a review paper, please contact one of the editors to discuss the topic’s relevance before submitting the manuscript.

The success of the first Edition can be found at:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fermentation/special_issues/P2N4UQFC47.

Dr. Teresa Lopes Da Silva
Dr. Alberto Delgado Dos Reis
Guest Editors

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.

• biorefinery
• biofuels
• microorganisms
• bioproducts
• bioprocesses
• circular economy