Provided are methods and compositions using activated carbon for optimizing purification and clarification of sugar streams produced from cellulosic or lignocellulosic biomass. Also provided are methods and compositions for decreasing one or more undesirable products during pretreatment.

A method produces a sugar liquid from a cellulosic biomass material, which sugar liquid has improved fermentability. The method produces a sugar liquid by: adding an alkali(s) to a concentrated cellulosic biomass sugar liquid to adjust the pH to not less than 7 to precipitate an insoluble substance(s) containing at least magnesium; and performing filtration through a microfiltration membrane to remove the insoluble substance(s), to obtain a sugar liquid as a permeate.

The present invention relates to polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity, catalytic domains, and carbohydrate binding domains, and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides, catalytic domains, and carbohydrate binding domains. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides, catalytic domains, and carbohydrate binding domains.

A method of producing lactic acid or a salt or an ester thereof, which includes incubating lignocellulosic hydrolysates in the presence of cells of an isolated strain of Thermoanaerobactor at a temperature above 70 degrees Celsius, wherein the Thermoanaerobactor comprises a 16S rDNA sequence at least 99% identical to the nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO. 1, SEQ ID NO. 2, SEQ ID NO. 3, SEQ ID NO. 4, SEQ ID NO. 5, SEQ ID NO. 6, SEQ ID NO. 7, and SEQ ID NO. 8

The present application relates to recombinant microorganisms useful in the biosynthesis of monoethylene glycol (MEG) and one or more three-carbon compounds such as acetone, isopropanol or propene. The MEG and one or more three-carbon compounds described herein are useful as starting material for production of other compounds or as end products for industrial and household use. The application further relates to recombinant microorganisms co-expressing a C2 branch pathway and a C3 branch pathway for the production of MEG and one or more three-carbon compounds. Also provided are methods of producing MEG and one or more three-carbon compounds using the recombinant microorganisms, as well as compositions comprising the recombinant microorganisms and/or optionally the products MEG and one or more three-carbon compounds.

The invention relates to methods of saccharifying a cellulosic material comprising subjecting the cellulosic material to a laccase and a cellulolytic enzyme composition comprising a GH61 polypeptide in the presence of dissolved oxygen at a concentration in the range of 0.5-90% of the saturation level. The invention also related to methods of producing desired fermentation products, such as ethanol, using a method including a saccharification step of the invention.

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having cellobiohydrolase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.

Embodiments provide a modified microbe capable of growing in or fermenting a solution, or lignocellulosic hydrolysate, comprising ferulic acid and/or coniferyl aldehyde. The microbe has one or more modifications to provide: (a) a decrease in copy number or expression of a BNA7 gene; (b) an increase in copy number or expression of one or more pentose phosphate pathway genes; and/or (c) localization of one or more products of the pentose phosphate pathway genes to the mitochondria or endoplasmic reticulum. Also provided is a microbe having modified expression or copy number of BNA7 and/or one or more of the pentose phosphate pathway genes. The pentose phosphate pathway genes may in certain embodiments be selected from at least one of ZWF1, TKL1, RPE1 and GND1. Also provided is a method for fermenting a substrate comprising ferulic acid and/or coniferyl aldehyde to produce a fermentation product.

The present invention relates to a process for treating lignocellulosic biomass, successively comprising b) a step of pretreatment of the biomass placed beforehand under acidic or neutral pH conditions in a pretreatment reactor (3), to produce an acidic or neutral pretreated must (AM), alternating with b′) a step of pretreatment of the biomass placed beforehand under acidic, neutral or basic conditions, with optional sufficient introduction of a basic aqueous solution (EB) into the pretreatment reactor (3) to produce a basic pretreated must (BM), and then c) a step of enzymatic hydrolysis in a hydrolysis reactor (16) of a mixture of the acidic or neutral pretreated must (AM) obtained from step b) with the basic pretreated must (BM) obtained from step b′).

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of an enzyme composition from cellulosic material.