D.V. Gokhale
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India
Title: Biomass conversion to value added products
Biography
Biography: D.V. Gokhale
Abstract
Lignocellulosic biomass is recognized as potential sustainable source for production of power, biofuels and variety of commodity chemicals which would potentially add economic value to biomass. Recalcitrance nature of biomass is largely responsible for the high cost of its conversion. Biotechnology provides the tools for biomass production and its valorization to various products. Biomass such as agricultural lignocellulosic residues, edible and non-edible crops and waste streams like bagasse from sugar manufacturers can be used for the production of commodity chemicals. The native biomass is recalcitrance due to its complex structure and hence the biomass components are not easily accessible to enzymatic attack. Therefore it is necessary to introduce some cost effective pretreatment processes to make the biomass polysaccharides easily amenable to enzymatic attack to release mixed fermentable sugars. India is one of the largest sugar cane growing countries, producing approximately 300 million tons per year, which generate about 75 million tons of sugarcane bagasse on dry weight basis. It is one of the main byproducts of the sugar industry which is already available at plant site. We developed strains producing high amounts of cellulase both in submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid state fermentation (SSF). We also developed Lactobacillus strains producing L- and D- lactic acids which produce these acids with very high productivity. Both cellulase producers and lactic acid producers were exploited for lactic acid production from bagasse. The results and future perspectives will be discussed during my presentation.