Microbial Ecology & Eco Systems

Carbon cycle and Bioenergy

A biofuel is a fuel that is engendered via contemporary biological processes, like agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than a fuel engendered by geological processes such as those involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, from prehistoric biological matter. Biofuels can be derived directly from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial wastes. Renewable biofuels commonly involve contemporary carbon fixation, like those that occur in plants or microalgae through the process of photosynthesis. Other renewable biofuels are made through the utilization or conversion of biomass (referring to recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials). This biomass can be converted to convenient energy-containing substances in three different methods: thermal conversion, chemical conversion, and biochemical conversion. This biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid, liquid, or gas form. Recently, lipases have been studied for biodiesel engenderment as whole-cell immobilized lipases. Each type of biocatalyst has its strengths and impotencies when it comes to reducing the contribution of the biocatalyst in the final cost of the biodiesel. Recent studies have been fixating on ameliorating catalysis performance and stability of the enzyme with the aim to reduce the lipase cost in the biodiesel conversion process. Different procedures have been developed for application mode of lipases. Solid state fermentation, whole-cell biocatalyst and immobilized lipase in different fortifies are the main studied modes.