Miscanthus sp. - Perennial lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock for greener fumaric acid bioproduction

The potential use of lignocellulosic biomass as the feedstock for fumaric acid production and to select the specific Rhizopus oryzae strain for bioproduction was investigated in the current work. For this purpose, alkaline pretreatment of the biomass from perennial grasses, silver grass (Miscanthus sp.) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and hemp (Cannabis sativa) was performed followed by enzymatic saccharification. The hydrolysate so obtained, was used as the feedstock for fumaric acid production. Silver grass was identified as the ideal perennial lignocellulosic biomass due to its higher reducing sugar concentration of 39.55 g/L as well as a yield of 0.79 g/g of pretreated biomass. The use of the hydrolysate for fumaric acid production, by three R. oryzae strains namely NRRL 1526, NRRL 6400 and NRRL 2582, yielded acid concentrations of 8 - 9 g/L. The strain NRRL 1526 was identified as the promising strain for fumaric acid bioproduction, as it provided the highest fumaric acid productivity of 0.19 gL(-1)h(-1).

Automated summary

This study investigated the potential use of lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock for fumaric acid production and identified silver grass as the ideal perennial biomass. Among three Rhizopus oryzae strains tested for bioproduction, NRRL 1526 showed the highest fumaric acid productivity, making it a promising strain for further applications.