Cellulases: From Lignocellulosic Biomass to Improved Production

Nevena Ilić, Marija Milić, Sunčica Beluhan and Suzana Dimitrijević-Branković ()
Additional contact information
Nevena Ilić: Innovation Centre of Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Marija Milić: Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Sunčica Beluhan: Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Suzana Dimitrijević-Branković: Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Cellulases are enzymes that are attracting worldwide attention because of their ability to degrade cellulose in the lignocellulosic biomass and transform it into highly demanded bioethanol. The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by cellulases into fermentable sugars is a crucial step in biofuel production, given the complex structure of lignocellulose. Due to cellulases’ unique ability to hydrolyze the very recaltricant nature of lignocellulosic biomass, the cellulase market demand is rapidly growing. Although cellulases have been used in industrial applications for decades, constant effort is being made in the field of enzyme innovation to develop cellulase mixtures/cocktails with improved performance. Given that the main producers of cellulases are of microbial origin, there is a constant need to isolate new microorganisms as potential producers of enzymes important for biofuel production. This review provides insight into current research on improving microbial cellulase production as well as the outlook for the cellulase market with commercial cellulase preparation involved in industrial bioethanol production.

Keywords: cellulase; lignocellulosic biomass; cellulase cocktails; cellulase market; bioethanol (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3598/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3598/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:8:p:3598-:d:1129438

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().