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Review
. 2021 May 18;9(5):1079.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9051079.

Consolidated Bioprocessing: Synthetic Biology Routes to Fuels and Fine Chemicals

Alec Banner  1 , Helen S Toogood  1 , Nigel S Scrutton  1
Affiliations
Review

Consolidated Bioprocessing: Synthetic Biology Routes to Fuels and Fine Chemicals

Alec Banner et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

The long road from emerging biotechnologies to commercial "green" biosynthetic routes for chemical production relies in part on efficient microbial use of sustainable and renewable waste biomass feedstocks. One solution is to apply the consolidated bioprocessing approach, whereby microorganisms convert lignocellulose waste into advanced fuels and other chemicals. As lignocellulose is a highly complex network of polymers, enzymatic degradation or "saccharification" requires a range of cellulolytic enzymes acting synergistically to release the abundant sugars contained within. Complications arise from the need for extracellular localisation of cellulolytic enzymes, whether they be free or cell-associated. This review highlights the current progress in the consolidated bioprocessing approach, whereby microbial chassis are engineered to grow on lignocellulose as sole carbon sources whilst generating commercially useful chemicals. Future perspectives in the emerging biofoundry approach with bacterial hosts are discussed, where solutions to existing bottlenecks could potentially be overcome though the application of high throughput and iterative Design-Build-Test-Learn methodologies. These rapid automated pathway building infrastructures could be adapted for addressing the challenges of increasing cellulolytic capabilities of microorganisms to commercially viable levels.

Keywords: biofoundry; cellulases; consolidated bioprocessing; lignocellulose degradation; synthetic biology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Enzymatic degradation of cellulose to glucose.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example structures of (a) hemicellulose (xylan) and (b) monomers of lignin.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic representation of free cellulases and cellulosomes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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