MANDI: Indian Institute of Technology Mandi  researchers have identified microbial pairs that can effectively convert cellulose (a major component present in Agriculture residue and paper waste into useful chemicals, biofuels, and carbon suitable for several industrial applications.

Plant dry matter, also known as lignocellulose, is one of the most abundant renewable materials on Earth. 

Lignocellulosic waste from agriculture, forests, and industries can be converted into valuable chemicals such as bioethanol, biodiesel, lactic acid, and fatty acids using a process called bioprocessing.

Bioprocessing, however, involves multiple steps and can release undesirable chemicals, requiring multiple washing and separation steps, which increases costs.

Scientists are exploring an innovative method called consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) to convert lignocellulosic biomass into useful chemicals.

The details of this research have been published in the journal Bioresource Technology Reports, in a paper co-authored by Dr Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, Associate Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Dr Swati Sharma, Assistant Professor School of Engineering and their research scholars Mr Chandrakant Joshi, Mr Mahesh Kumar, Ms Jyotika Thakur from IIT Mandi, Mr Martyn Bennett and Mr David J. Leak from University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom, and Mr Neil MacKinnon from KIT, Germany.

Dr Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, IIT Mandi, said, “We analysed multiple microbes to create SynCONS that could convert cellulose to ethanol and lactate.

"We developed two SynCONS - a fungal-bacterial pair and a thermophilic bacterial-bacterial pair - both of which exhibited effective cellulose degradation with total yields of 9% and 23%, respectively".

After pyrolysis of the remnant biomass, we obtained a carbon material with desirable physicochemical properties.”

Dr Swati Sharma, IIT Mandi, added, “The microbial consortia designed can be adopted for bioprocessing of cellulose to valuables such as industrial enzymes like cellulase, ethanol, and lactate.

Once scaled up, this process can sustainably generate bioethanol and other green chemicals in bioreactors. The carbon obtained after pyrolysis can be used in a range of applications such as water filtration and electrodes.”