Xylitol Biomanufacturing: Production Technologies, Industrial Applications and Future Opportunities

Microbial Glucosamine Production: Current Strategies, Process Bottlenecks, and Future Perspectives.

Glucosamine and its derivatives have been extensively used in the nutraceutical, cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries. Commercial glucosamine production traditionally relies on the acid or enzymatic hydrolysis of crustacean shells, particularly those of shrimp and crabs. However, these processes are often associated with high production costs, environmental concerns, extensive chemical usage, and the generation of hazardous waste. In recent years, microbial production of glucosamine has emerged as a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative, offering advantages such as milder processing conditions, reduced chemical inputs, and improved process scalability. Microbial approaches include direct glucosamine biosynthesis by native microorganisms, bioconversion of chitin-rich substrates by chitinolytic microbes, and metabolic engineering of recombinant strains for enhanced production. This review explores microbial approaches for glucosamine production, including direct biosynthesis, chitin bioconversion, and recombinant microbial systems. Key challenges related to substrate utilization, process scalability, strain stability, and product recovery are critically evaluated, along with emerging solutions involving metabolic engineering and process optimization. Additionally, strategies to overcome such challenges such as CRISPR-based gene editing, optimization of culture and fermentation conditions etc. have been discussed. This review emphasizes the fact that while microbial production of glucosamine offers clear environmental and economic advantages, their large-scale feasibility depends on addressing these challenges through integrated approaches.

Producing Advanced Biofuel Butanol Through Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol Fermentation.

Itaconic acid biomanufacturing: metabolic engineering and green process development.

Itaconic acid (IA), an important unsaturated dicarboxylic acid, finds wide applications in industry, medicine, food, and energy. Biotechnological production of IA offers advantages in sustainability, process controllability, and the potential for high titers in selected hosts, although cost competitiveness remains a major barrier to industrial deployment. However, several challenges still hinder its large-scale industrial production, including: low substrate utilization efficiency, difficulty in pathway regulation, downstream separation bottlenecks, and environmental concerns. To address these challenges and further improve IA production through metabolic engineering, this review summarizes recent advances and key technologies in IA biosynthesis. Engineering strategies for de novo IA production were analyzed, the application of whole-cell catalysis and fermentation process optimization to enhance IA yield was discussed, and the use of renewable resources as substrates for IA production was reviewed. In addition, the prospects of AI-assisted strain engineering and green, low-carbon process technologies for IA biosynthesis were examined. These insights provide valuable guidance for understanding metabolic engineering strategies and bioprocess innovations aimed at improving IA production in alignment with sustainable and low-carbon objectives.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Production from Wastewater: Microbial Pathways, Production Strategies, and Sustainability Perspectives

The increasing accumulation of petroleum-based plastic waste and wastewater has intensified the need for sustainable waste management and biodegradable alternatives. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB), a microbial biopolymer, has emerged as a promising substitute for conventional plastics. This article reviews the potential of wastewater as a renewable substrate for P3HB production, with emphasis on microbial pathways, production strategies, and sustainability aspects. It discusses different wastewater sources, P3HB-producing microorganisms, metabolic engineering approaches, production processes, and polymer recovery techniques, highlighting the factors that influence productivity and product quality. The integration of P3HB production into biorefinery systems and its contribution to resource recovery, greenhouse gas mitigation, and the circular bioeconomy are also addressed. Overall, wastewater-based P3HB production represents a sustainable and economically attractive approach for biodegradable polymer production, although further technological advances are required to support large-scale industrial implementation.

Lignocellulolytic enzymes in circular biorefineries: Challenges, barriers, and integrative solutions for next generation bioeconomy.

The sustainable bioeconomy fundamentally relies on the effective valorization of lignocellulosic biomass into renewable fuels and high-value biochemicals. Although extensive research has been conducted over several decades, commercialization remains hindered by enzyme instability, low catalytic efficiency, high production costs, and the intrinsic recalcitrance of biomass. While previous reviews have separately discussed lignocellulolytic enzymes, biomass conversion, or circular bioeconomy strategies, comprehensive integration of recent molecular, microbial, and process-engineering advancements remains limited. Therefore, this review provides a multidisciplinary perspective integrating enzyme engineering, microbial co-culturing, heterologous gene expression, advanced biomass pretreatment, and bioprocess optimization within a unified biorefinery framework. The review critically links molecular-level improvements, including protein engineering, codon optimization, and thermostability enhancement, with industrial process strategies such as consolidated bioprocessing, consolidated bio-saccharification, and techno-economic optimization. Emerging approaches including CRISPR/Cas9-mediated strain improvement, artificial cellulosomes, nanobiotechnology, and AI-assisted modeling are discussed as supportive tools for improving biomass conversion efficiency and industrial applicability. In addition, major bottlenecks such as enzyme instability, biomass recalcitrance, and process incompatibilities are critically evaluated along with recent strategies to overcome these limitations. By integrating molecular biology, microbial engineering, and process-level innovations, this review provides a comprehensive framework for the development of sustainable and scalable lignocellulosic biorefineries supporting the circular bioeconomy.

A Review on Xylooligosaccharides Production From Lignocellulosic Biomass: Strategies, Applications, and Challenges.

Biorefinery strategies that convert renewable lignocellulosic biomass into high-value xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are of great significance for reducing dependence on fossil resources and advancing sustainable biomass utilization. In recent years, the efficient production of XOS has attracted increasing attention because of its broad applications in food, feed, and health-related sectors. With the rapid development of XOS production technologies, a timely and critical overview of recent progress is needed. This review comprehensively summarizes the current progress in XOS production from lignocellulosic biomass, focusing on feedstock selection, production strategies, purification technologies, applications of XOS, and machine learning-assisted process optimization. The one-step organic acid hydrolysis is a promising XOS production strategy because of its operational simplicity, effective conversion yield, relatively mild reaction conditions, lower corrosion risk, and potential to enable the coproduction of multiple value-added products in biomass biorefineries. Deep eutectic solvent (DES) pretreatment strategies are also promising approaches for XOS production. In addition, the major challenges associated with industrial-scale XOS production are discussed, particularly in relation to the development of low-cost enzyme systems, efficient byproduct utilization, machine learning-assisted prediction and optimization of production parameters, and process integration. Overall, this review provides an updated perspective for the sustainable, efficient, and industrially relevant production of XOS.