微生物在发展循环经济中扮演重要角色

发展循环经济可充分利用农业上各种有机废弃物借助微生物-生物技术的有效应用,实现废弃物资源化和产业化,从中索取生物质能（作为洁净替代能源）是大有可为的,是未来能源建没的方向之一。也可以说,是节能（如石油）的一项具有战略意义的重要措施。在围际上正在发展洁净新能源如氢能、乙醇燃料或乙醇汽油、二甲醚、沼气（甲烷气）、生物柴油等洁净生物能源,包括中国在内的不同国家对它们大有开发之势。     

2013生物能源专刊序言

生物能源作为可再生能源,可以替代部分石化能源,有望缓解能源供给中对石油的依赖程度.本期专刊结合第6届国际生物能源会议,包括综述和研究报告两部分,报道了我国生物能源专家学者在燃料乙醇、生物柴油、微生物油脂、生物燃料标准、航空生物燃料等领域的最新研究进展.     

基于废物资源化的美极梅奇酵母产油研究现状及应用潜力分析

清洁可再生能源生物柴油的开发利用是对当今能源短缺环境下化石燃料替代物的有益探索。微生物油脂作为一种可能实现生物柴油廉价、高效生产的原料引起了广泛的关注,但由于封闭式培养模式操作复杂、成本高制约了其大规模应用。美极梅奇酵母Metschnikowia pulcherrmia是一种新型产油酵母,具有适应性强、底物利用范围广、可在开放体系培养等特点,很有潜力代替传统产油微生物,实现基于生物柴油的废水及固废能源化工程应用。文中对美极梅奇酵母相关研究开展了全面调研,在分析其产油研究及应用现状的基础上,总结了美极梅奇酵母在油脂生产方面所具有的独特优势和关键影响因素,突出强调了其在开放体系培养及利用有机废弃物生产微生物油脂的可行性。此外,文中还指出了美极梅奇酵母在油脂产量、产油机理等方面存在的问题与不足,为实现生物柴油高效生产提供了新的方向和思路,有利于进一步促进其工业化应用。     

制造业、生物加工

制造业生物加工领域的机遇越来越多新的和改进的商品将由生物加工技术生产出来。生物加工技术是一项使用生物或它们的细胞成分,运用化学、物理学和生物学过程的先进的制造技术。生物加工技术使研究发明转化为具有独特的和人们所期望特性的商品,并为许多产品提供了新的生产方法,这些产品包括：·能源,包括乙醇、甲烷和柴油等燃料;·常用化学试剂,如酶、有机酸和溶剂等;·用于制作胶片、衣服和具有其他特殊用途的聚合物;...     

微生物途径发展生物柴油产业

生物柴油实际上就是生物油脂与甲醇或乙醇在酸、碱催化剂的作用下进行脂交换反应而制造的脂肪酸甲酯或乙酯;也可以在常温下由微生物脂酶催化进行酯化反应,其产品是一种可再生燃料,能替代石油柴油。这些生物柴油主要来自植物油或其它生物油脂,也有用废弃食用油为原料通过甲醇的酯交换反应来制造生物柴油的。研发这些生物柴油也可以说是节能的一项重要措施。在我国,对石油的需求量越来越大,石油进口量也随之猛增,显示出我国的能源形势日益严峻。面对这种情况,发展可再生能源或替代能源是个必然趋势,生物柴油便是其中之一。目前我国生物柴油的…     

能源微生物油脂技术进展

微生物油脂技术是缓解生物柴油规模化生产原料短缺的有效途径之一。介绍了国内外利用产油真菌生产能源微生物油脂的现状,包括拓展发酵原料、选育优良菌株、建立新型调控策略和不同培养模式以及解析油脂过量积累的分子机制;概括了微生物油脂技术产业化面临的问题及其解决方案;最后指出了能源微生物油脂研究未来发展方向。     

生物能源专刊序言

生物能源作为可再生能源,有望减少能源供给中对石油的依赖程度。近年来,我国生物能源的发展非常迅速,已经成为继巴西和美国后的第三大燃料乙醇生产国和消费国。为促进生物能源相关技术研究的发展,本期“生物能源”专刊收录了我国生物能源专家学者在燃料乙醇、生物柴油、微生物油脂、生物燃料系统分析等领域的最新研究进展。     

生物能源专刊序言

发展生物能源是减轻经济和社会发展对不可再生矿物质能源依赖程度,实现CO2减排的有效措施。本期专刊包括综述报告和研究论文两部分,涉及燃料乙醇、生物柴油、生物燃气、生物氢能、微生物燃料电池和微生物电解池等主要生物能源产品和系统,比较全面地分析其基础研究、关键技术开发和产业发展现状,讨论了存在的问题和挑战,展望了发展的前景。     

微生物能源的转化效率和经济可行性研究

生物质能源在中国,尤其是农村地区是一种十分重要的能源,然而,目前和将来油气资源的缺乏不仅影响国民经济的发展,而且危及能源安全。估算了4种最具应用前景的微生物能源包括微生物柴油,生物乙醇,氢气和沼气,并讨论了经济可行性及使用前景。其诣在帮助发展将生物质转化为燃料的技术,而此项技术对中国经济的发展具有重要的意义。     

微藻减排CO2制备生物柴油的研究进展

碳减排与可再生能源的开发利用是研究可持续发展的热点,而微藻在此方面具有巨大优势.利用微藻减排CO2合成生物柴油生产原料油脂,对于解决能源短缺和全球变暖具有重大战略意义.将碳减排与微藻生物柴油的制备方法相结合,对微藻转化CO2合成生物油脂的机制,微藻油脂积累的影响因素以及国内外在工业上的研究概况等方面进行综合归纳和评述,并对微藻生物油脂的发展前景进行了展望.     

Ultra-sonication application in biodiesel production from heterotrophic oleaginous microorganisms

Utilization of microbial oil for biodiesel production has gained growing interest due to the increase in prices and the shortage of the oils and fats traditionally used in biodiesel production. However, it is still in the laboratory study stage due to the high cost of production. Employing organic wastes as raw materials to grow heterotrophic oleaginous microorganisms for further lipid production to produce biodiesel has been predicted to be a promising method for reducing costs. However, there are many obstacles including the low biodegradability of organic wastes, low lipid accumulation capacity of heterotrophic oleaginous microorganisms while using organic wastes, a great dependence on a high-energy consumption approach for biomass harvesting, utilization of toxic organic solvents for lipid extraction, and large amount of methanol required in trans-esterification and in-situ trans-esterifications. Ultra-sonication as a green technology has been extensively utilized to enhance bio-product production from organic wastes. In this article, ultra-sonication applications in biodiesel production steps with heterotrophic oleaginous microorganisms have been reviewed, and its impact, potential, and limitations on the process have been discussed.     

Reuse potential of agricultural wastes in semi-arid regions: Egypt as a case study

Agricultural wastes represent an important source of bio-energy and valuable products. In Egypt, 18% of the agricultural wastes is used directly as fertiliser. Another 30% is used as animal food. The remainder is burnt directly on the fields or is used for heating in the small villages, using low efficiency burners. These wastes can be used more efficiently as a source of energy and as organic fertiliser. The anaerobic bioconversion of these materials will result in a net energy production. The utilisation of agricultural wastes for the production of energy and compost, combined with using solar energy will save fossil fuel, improve health conditions and the general life quality in the villages. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Opportunities for renewable bioenergy using microorganisms

Global warming can be slowed, and perhaps reversed, only when society replaces fossil fuels with renewable, carbon-neutral alternatives. The best option is bioenergy: the sun's energy is captured in biomass and converted to energy forms useful to modern society. To make a dent in global warming, bioenergy must be generated at a very high rate, since the world today uses approximately 10 TW of fossil-fuel energy. And, it must do so without inflicting serious damage on the environment or disrupting our food supply. While most bioenergy options fail on both counts, several microorganism-based options have the potential to produce large amounts of renewable energy without disruptions. In one approach, microbial communities convert the energy value of various biomass residuals to socially useful energy. Biomass residuals come from agricultural, animal, and a variety of industrial operations, as well as from human wastes. Microorganisms can convert almost all of the energy in these wastes to methane, hydrogen, and electricity. In a second approach, photosynthetic microorganisms convert sunlight into biodiesel. Certain algae (eukaryotes) or cyanobacteria (prokaryotes) have high lipid contents. Under proper conditions, these photosynthetic microorganisms can produce lipids for biodiesel with yields per unit area 100 times or more than possible with any plant system. In addition, the non-lipid biomass can be converted to methane, hydrogen, or electricity. Photosynthetic microorganisms do not require arable land, an advantage because our arable land must be used to produce food. Algae or cyanobacteria may be the best option to produce bioenergy at rates high enough to replace a substantial fraction of our society's use of fossil fuels.     

Enzyme research and applications in biotechnological intensification of biogas production

Biogas technology provides an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Using local resources such as agricultural crop remains, municipal solid wastes, market wastes and animal waste, energy (biogas), and manure are derived by anaerobic digestion. The hydrolysis process, where the complex insoluble organic materials are hydrolysed by extracellular enzymes, is a rate-limiting step for anaerobic digestion of high-solid organic solid wastes. Biomass pretreatment and hydrolysis are areas in need of drastic improvement for economic production of biogas from complex organic matter such as lignocellulosic material and sewage sludge. Despite development of pretreatment techniques, sugar release from complex biomass still remains an expensive and slow step, perhaps the most critical in the overall process. This paper gives an updated review of the biotechnological advances to improve biogas production by microbial enzymatic hydrolysis of different complex organic matter for converting them into fermentable structures. A number of authors have reported significant improvement in biogas production when crude and commercial enzymes are used in the pretreatment of complex organic matter. There have been studies on the improvement of biogas production from lignocellulolytic materials, one of the largest and renewable sources of energy on earth, after pretreatment with cellulases and cellulase-producing microorganisms. Lipids (characterised as oil, grease, fat, and free long chain fatty acids, LCFA) are a major organic compound in wastewater generated from the food processing industries and have been considered very difficult to convert into biogas. Improved methane yield has been reported in the literature when these lipid-rich wastewaters are pretreated with lipases and lipase-producing microorganisms. The enzymatic treatment of mixed sludge by added enzymes prior to anaerobic digestion has been shown to result in improved degradation of the sludge and an increase in methane production. Strategies for enzyme dosing to enhance anaerobic digestion of the different complex organic rich materials have been investigated. This review also highlights the various challenges and opportunities that exist to improve enzymatic hydrolysis of complex organic matter for biogas production. The arguments in favor of enzymes to pretreat complex biomass are compelling. The high cost of commercial enzyme production, however, still limits application of enzymatic hydrolysis in full-scale biogas production plants, although production of low-cost enzymes and genetic engineering are addressing this issue.     

Enzyme research and applications in biotechnological intensification of biogas production

Biogas technology provides an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Using local resources such as agricultural crop remains, municipal solid wastes, market wastes and animal waste, energy (biogas), and manure are derived by anaerobic digestion. The hydrolysis process, where the complex insoluble organic materials are hydrolysed by extracellular enzymes, is a rate-limiting step for anaerobic digestion of high-solid organic solid wastes. Biomass pretreatment and hydrolysis are areas in need of drastic improvement for economic production of biogas from complex organic matter such as lignocellulosic material and sewage sludge. Despite development of pretreatment techniques, sugar release from complex biomass still remains an expensive and slow step, perhaps the most critical in the overall process. This paper gives an updated review of the biotechnological advances to improve biogas production by microbial enzymatic hydrolysis of different complex organic matter for converting them into fermentable structures. A number of authors have reported significant improvement in biogas production when crude and commercial enzymes are used in the pretreatment of complex organic matter. There have been studies on the improvement of biogas production from lignocellulolytic materials, one of the largest and renewable sources of energy on earth, after pretreatment with cellulases and cellulase-producing microorganisms. Lipids (characterised as oil, grease, fat, and free long chain fatty acids, LCFA) are a major organic compound in wastewater generated from the food processing industries and have been considered very difficult to convert into biogas. Improved methane yield has been reported in the literature when these lipid-rich wastewaters are pretreated with lipases and lipase-producing microorganisms. The enzymatic treatment of mixed sludge by added enzymes prior to anaerobic digestion has been shown to result in improved degradation of the sludge and an increase in methane production. Strategies for enzyme dosing to enhance anaerobic digestion of the different complex organic rich materials have been investigated. This review also highlights the various challenges and opportunities that exist to improve enzymatic hydrolysis of complex organic matter for biogas production. The arguments in favor of enzymes to pretreat complex biomass are compelling. The high cost of commercial enzyme production, however, still limits application of enzymatic hydrolysis in full-scale biogas production plants, although production of low-cost enzymes and genetic engineering are addressing this issue.     

A shift in the current: new applications and concepts for microbe-electrode electron exchange

Perceived applications of microbe-electrode interactions are shifting from production of electric power to other technologies, some of which even consume current. Electrodes can serve as stable, long-term electron acceptors for contaminant-degrading microbes to promote rapid degradation of organic pollutants in anaerobic subsurface environments. Solar and other forms of renewable electrical energy can be used to provide electrons extracted from water to microorganisms on electrodes at suitably low potentials for a number of groundwater bioremediation applications as well as for the production of fuels and other organic compounds from carbon dioxide. The understanding of how microorganisms exchange electrons with electrodes has improved substantially and is expected to be helpful in optimizing practical applications of microbe-electrode interactions, as well as yielding insights into related natural environmental phenomena.     

Microbial utilization of crude glycerol for the production of value-added products

Energy fuels for transportation and electricity generation are mainly derived from finite and declining reserves of fossil hydrocarbons. Fossil hydrocarbons are also used to produce a wide range of organic carbon-based chemical products. The current global dependency on fossil hydrocarbons will not be environmentally or economically sustainable in the long term. Given the future pessimistic prospects regarding the complete dependency on fossil fuels, political and economic incentives to develop carbon neutral and sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels have been increasing throughout the world. For example, interest in biodiesel has undergone a revival in recent times. However, the disposal of crude glycerol contaminated with methanol, salts, and free fatty acids as a by-product of biodiesel production presents an environmental and economic challenge. Although pure glycerol can be utilized in the cosmetics, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and food industries (among others), the industrial purification of crude glycerol is not economically viable. However, crude glycerol could be used as an organic carbon substrate for the production of high-value chemicals such as 1,3-propanediol, organic acids, or polyols. Microorganisms have been employed to produce such high-value chemicals and the objective of this article is to provide an overview of studies on the utilization of crude glycerol by microorganisms for the production of economically valuable products. Glycerol as a by-product of biodiesel production could be used a feedstock for the manufacture of many products that are currently produced by the petroleum-based chemical industry.     

Electricity generation from carbon monoxide and syngas in a microbial fuel cell

Electricity generation in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) has been a subject of significant research efforts. MFCs employ the ability of electricigenic bacteria to oxidize organic substrates using an electrode as an electron acceptor. While MFC application for electricity production from a variety of organic sources has been demonstrated, very little research on electricity production from carbon monoxide and synthesis gas (syngas) in an MFC has been reported. Although most of the syngas today is produced from non-renewable sources, syngas production from renewable biomass or poorly degradable organic matter makes energy generation from syngas a sustainable process, which combines energy production with the reprocessing of solid wastes. An MFC-based process of syngas conversion to electricity might offer a number of advantages such as high Coulombic efficiency and biocatalytic activity in the presence of carbon monoxide and sulfur components. This paper presents a discussion on microorganisms and reactor designs that can be used for operating an MFC on syngas.     

Microbial leaching of metals from solid industrial wastes

Biotechnological applications for metal recovery have played a greater role in recovery of valuable metals from low grade sulfide minerals from the beginning of the middle era till the end of the twentieth century. With depletion of ore/minerals and implementation of stricter environmental rules, microbiological applications for metal recovery have been shifted towards solid industrial wastes. Due to certain restrictions in conventional processes, use of microbes has garnered increased attention. The process is environmentally-friendly, economical and cost-effective. The major microorganisms in recovery of heavy metals are acidophiles that thrive at acidic pH ranging from 2.0–4.0. These microbes aid in dissolving metals by secreting inorganic and organic acids into aqueous media. Some of the well-known acidophilic bacteria such as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans and Sulfolobus spp. are well-studied for bioleaching activity, whereas, fungal species like Penicillium spp. and Aspergillus niger have been thoroughly studied for the same process. This mini-review focuses on the acidophilic microbial diversity and application of those microorganisms toward solid industrial wastes.     

Anaerobic co-digestion of organic wastes

Over the last years anaerobic digestion has been successfully established as technology to treat organic wastes. The perspective of turning, through a low-cost process, organic wastes into biogas, a source of renewable energy and profit, has certainly increased the interest around this technology and has required several studies aimed to develop methods that could improve the performance as well as the efficiency of this process. The present work reviews the most interesting results achieved through such studies, mainly focusing on the following three aspects: (1) the analysis of the organic substrates typically co-digested to exploit their complementary characteristics; (2) the need of pre-treating the substrates before their digestion in order to change their physical and/or chemical characteristics; (3) the usefulness of mathematical models simulating the anaerobic co-digestion process. In particular these studies have demonstrated that combining different organic wastes results in a substrate better balanced and assorted in terms of nutrients, pre-treatments make organic solids more accessible and degradable to microorganisms, whereas mathematical models are extremely useful to predict the co-digestion process performance and therefore can be successfully used to choose the best substrates to mix as well as the most suitable pre-treatments to be applied.