Bioconversion of Straw Biomass
into Bioproducts
Bushra Anees Palvasha, Sadaf Ahmad, Bakar Bin Khatab Abbasi,
Muhammad Shahid Nazir, and Mohd. Azmuddin Abdullah
Abstract
Agricultural industries produce a significant amount of
lignocellulosic materials and wastes that can be converted
and developed into cost-effective energy and value-added
bioproducts of commercial importance. Bioconversion
turns organic matter into products using biological methods or agents. Straw biomass is an important agricultural
residue that can be harnessed for the production of
bioethanol, high-value biochemicals, special enzymes,
organic products, proteins, and biomaterials. The tough
lignin layer of the lignocellulosic components necessitates
the pretreatment steps including the physico-mechanical,
chemical, or biological methods to allow further processes
such as saccharification, fermentation, and anaerobic
digestion; and to enhance accessibility to the microbes
and enzymes, for bioconversion into products of interest.
However, there are major economic and technological
challenges that have to be taken into consideration. This
chapter highlights the straw biomass and its key composition for the bioconversion into valuable bioproducts.
Different biological pretreatments using lignocellulolytic
enzymes for the degradation of biomass are elaborated.
The challenges for industrial-scale implementation to
develop bio-based commercial production using straw
biomass are also addressed.
Keywords
Sustainable development Á Green technology Á
Eco-friendly processes Á Agro-wastes Á Straw biomass Á
Lignocelluloses Á Bioconversion Á Biological
treatments Á Biofuels Á Bioproducts Á Biomaterials
1 Introduction
Bioconversion converts organic matter, for instance, animal,
plant, or lignocellulosic wastes, into value-added extracts/
products and bioenergy, by utilizing the biological methods
or biological agents (microorganisms). The development of
bio-refineries, as shown in Fig. 1, for the transformation of
raw materials/wastes/residue into bioproducts should provide alternatives to the petrochemicals and conventional oil
refineries (Ferreira 2017). The bio-refinery concept aims to
utilize different potential biomass feedstocks, based on different treatments and conversion protocols, toward the production of a wide variety of products. The bioconversion
processes should be eco-friendly, consume less energy,
generate zero or less wastes, and be economically viable.
The potential applications of lignocellulosic biomass are
shown in Fig. 2 (Iqbal and Kyazze 2013). Nevertheless, the
major challenge is that the agricultural wastes or straw
biomass are protected by a tough lignin layer, thus inhibiting
the microbes and enzymes to access and convert them into
the required products. Hence, bioconversion requires precise
and effective methods in which the pre-treatment step plays
the most important role. There are different treatment
methods for the lignocellulosic waste materials including
physical, chemical, physio-chemical, and biochemical or
biological treatments (Fig. 3) (Kumar and Sharma 2017).
The pre-treatment of wastes is needed to modify the structure of straw wastes to isolate the cellulose, hemicellulose,
and lignin, employing various methods; for instance, saccharification or enzymatic hydrolysis, to release the sugars
B. A. Palvasha Á S. Ahmad Á B. B. K. Abbasi Á M. S. Nazir (&)
Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad
(CUI), Lahore Campus, Islamabad, 54000, Pakistan
e-mail: biochemistsn@mail.com; shahid.nazir@cuilahore.edu.pk
Mohd. A. Abdullah (&)
Institute of Marine Biotechnology, Universiti Malaysia
Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
e-mail: azmuddin@umt.edu.my; joule1602@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Inamuddin and A. Khan (eds.), Sustainable Bioconversion of Waste to Value Added Products, Advances in Science,
Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61837-7_23
369
into Bioproducts
Bushra Anees Palvasha, Sadaf Ahmad, Bakar Bin Khatab Abbasi,
Muhammad Shahid Nazir, and Mohd. Azmuddin Abdullah
Abstract
Agricultural industries produce a significant amount of
lignocellulosic materials and wastes that can be converted
and developed into cost-effective energy and value-added
bioproducts of commercial importance. Bioconversion
turns organic matter into products using biological methods or agents. Straw biomass is an important agricultural
residue that can be harnessed for the production of
bioethanol, high-value biochemicals, special enzymes,
organic products, proteins, and biomaterials. The tough
lignin layer of the lignocellulosic components necessitates
the pretreatment steps including the physico-mechanical,
chemical, or biological methods to allow further processes
such as saccharification, fermentation, and anaerobic
digestion; and to enhance accessibility to the microbes
and enzymes, for bioconversion into products of interest.
However, there are major economic and technological
challenges that have to be taken into consideration. This
chapter highlights the straw biomass and its key composition for the bioconversion into valuable bioproducts.
Different biological pretreatments using lignocellulolytic
enzymes for the degradation of biomass are elaborated.
The challenges for industrial-scale implementation to
develop bio-based commercial production using straw
biomass are also addressed.
Keywords
Sustainable development Á Green technology Á
Eco-friendly processes Á Agro-wastes Á Straw biomass Á
Lignocelluloses Á Bioconversion Á Biological
treatments Á Biofuels Á Bioproducts Á Biomaterials
1 Introduction
Bioconversion converts organic matter, for instance, animal,
plant, or lignocellulosic wastes, into value-added extracts/
products and bioenergy, by utilizing the biological methods
or biological agents (microorganisms). The development of
bio-refineries, as shown in Fig. 1, for the transformation of
raw materials/wastes/residue into bioproducts should provide alternatives to the petrochemicals and conventional oil
refineries (Ferreira 2017). The bio-refinery concept aims to
utilize different potential biomass feedstocks, based on different treatments and conversion protocols, toward the production of a wide variety of products. The bioconversion
processes should be eco-friendly, consume less energy,
generate zero or less wastes, and be economically viable.
The potential applications of lignocellulosic biomass are
shown in Fig. 2 (Iqbal and Kyazze 2013). Nevertheless, the
major challenge is that the agricultural wastes or straw
biomass are protected by a tough lignin layer, thus inhibiting
the microbes and enzymes to access and convert them into
the required products. Hence, bioconversion requires precise
and effective methods in which the pre-treatment step plays
the most important role. There are different treatment
methods for the lignocellulosic waste materials including
physical, chemical, physio-chemical, and biochemical or
biological treatments (Fig. 3) (Kumar and Sharma 2017).
The pre-treatment of wastes is needed to modify the structure of straw wastes to isolate the cellulose, hemicellulose,
and lignin, employing various methods; for instance, saccharification or enzymatic hydrolysis, to release the sugars
B. A. Palvasha Á S. Ahmad Á B. B. K. Abbasi Á M. S. Nazir (&)
Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad
(CUI), Lahore Campus, Islamabad, 54000, Pakistan
e-mail: biochemistsn@mail.com; shahid.nazir@cuilahore.edu.pk
Mohd. A. Abdullah (&)
Institute of Marine Biotechnology, Universiti Malaysia
Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
e-mail: azmuddin@umt.edu.my; joule1602@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Inamuddin and A. Khan (eds.), Sustainable Bioconversion of Waste to Value Added Products, Advances in Science,
Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61837-7_23
369