Low Carbon Specialty Lipids from Liquefied Soybean Hulls

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🔬研究者:Provides a detailed rheological and biological characterization of time-resolved hydrolysates from enzymatic liquefaction of low-lignin biomass, which is valuable for biorefinery process optimization.

🏢実務担当者:The fed-batch enzymatic liquefaction approach offers a cost-effective, pretreatment-free route to process high-solids biomass, reducing operational costs for lipid production.

Increasing energy demands and depletion of fossil fuel reserves have increased interested in renewable-based resources, specifically lignocellulosic biomass. The valorization of these feedstocks relies on their carbohydrate fraction, which can be transformed into bioproducts such as bioethanol and lipids. However, to reach a competitive level, achieving high-solids loadings is required – an aim limited by the rheological properties of untreated biomass, including high viscosity and poor flowability. Traditionally, physical or chemical pretreatments have been proposed to overcome this, but these approaches increase operational costs. Direct enzymatic liquefaction offers a compelling alternative, capable of processing high-solids loadings without the cost and complexity of pretreatment. Although this strategy has been reported for feedstocks with moderate-to-high lignin content such as corn stover, its applicability to low-lignin substrates – like soybean hulls – remains unexplored. In this research, soybean hull pellets were liquefied at a solids concentration of 300 g/L (30% w/v) in a 1L fed-batch bioreactor at 50 °C using a blend of Celluclast and Pectinex, without any physical or chemical pretreatment. The fed-batch strategy processed the full 300 g/L loading over 96 hours, producing a pumpable slurry containing 90.01 g/L total monosaccharides. Rheological characterization confirmed a yield stress of 17.2 Pa, demonstrating that the liquefied material achieves the flowability required for industrial downstream handling. To further define the optimal liquefaction endpoint for downstream processing, hydrolysates collected at different liquefaction times were evaluated via fermentation with oleaginous yeast, confirming biological compatibility and lipid production across sampling points, with produced lipids subsequently used to generate biolubricants. Overall, this work establishes soybean hulls as a non-recalcitrant lignocellulosic feedstock well-suited for pretreatment-free, high-solids enzymatic liquefaction. The rheological and biological characterization of time-resolved hydrolysates provides practical guidance for defining optimal liquefaction times in integrated biorefinery configurations, offering a scalable and cost-effective route to pumpable, fermentable slurries from a widely available agricultural residue.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.25394/pgs.32092045first seen 2026-05-17 05:25:51 · last seen 2026-06-03 04:57:51