Towards the sustainable conversion of corn stover into bioenergy and bioproducts through biochemical route: Technical, economic and strategic perspectives
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2023
Abstract
Corn stover (CS) is one of the most abundant agricultural wastes and is ubiquitous around the world that is left over after grain harvest and accounts for 47-50% dry mass of the total grain yield. The global CS yield is 1661.25 million tons/year, which is 27.2% of the total agricultural waste. CS consists of about 34.5% stems, 32.3% leaves, 14.3% husks, 12.3% cobs and 6.6% flowers, with up to 45% cellulose, 30% hemicellulose and 20% lignin. Due to its favorable economic and environmental potential, CS is considered an ideal raw material for producing bio-fuels and biobased chemicals, which can largely be divided into carbohydrate and lignin platforms. However, the techno-economic perspectives of CS-based biorefineries have remained questionable due to the inadequate supply chain logistics, lack of cost-effective conversion technologies, limited scale-up of the product-specific technologies, and lower competitiveness in the market compared to their counterparts, such as sugar and starch-based biorefineries. While CS is converted by thermochemical and biochemical approaches, the latter is considered to be more sustainable for its selective conversion under mild conditions using microorganisms. This review aimed to critically discuss the latest research and developments on the biochemical conversion of CS into biofuels and chemicals. In particular, this paper covers the market potential of biofuels and chemicals to which CS can make a significant contribution, technological developments in the microbial conversion of CS, major biofuels and chemicals produced from CS-derived carbohydrates and lignin, and the technoeconomic perspec-tives of CS-based biorefinery.
Keywords
Lignocellulosic biomass, Biorefinery, Waste to energy, Biomass processing, Pretreatment
Divisions
universiti
Funders
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (32272284),National Key R & D Program of China (2021YFA0910401),Foreign Experts Program, Ministry of S T, China (ON2022012005L),Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program of Jiangsu Province (JSSCBS20210929),University of Tennessee
Publication Title
Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume
400
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher Location
125 London Wall, London, ENGLAND