Recent progress and challenges in biological degradation and biotechnological valorization of lignin as an emerging source of bioenergy: A state-of-the-art review

Gwon Woo Park, Gyeongtaek Gong, Jeong Chan Joo, Jinju Song, Jiye Lee, Joon-Pyo Lee, Hee Taek Kim, Mi Hee Ryu, Ranjna Sirohi, Xinshu Zhuang and Kyoungseon Min

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2022, vol. 157, issue C

Abstract: Due to concerns over climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels, recent studies have focused on biorefineries utilizing lignocellulosic biomass as a renewable feedstock for producing value-added fuels and chemicals. Among the components of lignocellulosic biomass, cellulosic/hemicellulosic components have mainly been utilized to obtain fermentable sugars in biorefineries, whereas lignin has commonly been treated as a byproduct thus far. Nonetheless, lignin is the most widely available macromolecule in nature; thus, recent biorefineries have paid special attention to lignin as an attractive source for renewable energy. Given that natural lignin is highly recalcitrant to breakdown, lignin degradation is the most significant issue for further valorization. Accordingly, biological approaches involving enzymes and microorganisms for lignin degradation are comprehensively reviewed in this study. Additionally, this review intensively addresses the recent progress in biotechnological lignin valorization including not only metabolic engineering for producing useful fuels and chemicals but also the use of lignin-based hybrid materials for biosensor and biomedical applications. Furthermore, future studies on challenging issues are suggested as an aid to developing feasible lignin-based biorefineries. The results discussed in this review might provide insights for zero-waste refineries utilizing all components of lignocellulosic biomass.

Keywords: Ligninolytic enzyme; Microbial lignin degradation; Metabolic engineering for lignin valorization; Lignin-based hybrid materials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121012880
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s1364032121012880

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.112025

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().