A method is described to produce cellulose sheets and suspensions by fermenting biomass obtained from household and/or industrial waste. The inoculum in the fermentation includes cellulose producing bacteria and optionally yeast cells. The method has a high cellulose productivity. The resulting sheets or suspensions can be used to produce various further materials, such as disposable vessels, sachets, artificial leather. The sheet and suspensions can be used as additives in material production, such as paper making production. The method provides an alternative to make disposable items that are currently made of plastic, and textiles.

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having laccase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides 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.

A method of efficiently producing saccharides having glucose as the major component by inexpensively suppressing the non-productive adsorption of the enzyme to lignin is provided. The method of producing saccharides includes: a first step of preparing a water-soluble protein by adding at least any one of an animal protein and a vegetable protein to an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution or an aqueous calcium hydroxide solution to react with each other; a second step of adding the water-soluble protein to a slurry including a biomass; and a third step of producing saccharides having glucose as a major component by adding a degrading enzyme to the slurry for at least any one of a cellulose or a hemicellulose included in the biomass to be degraded by the degrading enzyme simultaneously with addition of the water-soluble protein to the slurry or after addition of the water-soluble protein.

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.

This disclosure describes biological pesticides that include biological mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs), and their application. Provided MEL-based pesticides are microbially produced by through microbial (fungal) fermentation of plant-based derivatives or plant-derived materials as a substrate. The biologically active components are obtained from multiple stage bio-processes including transformation, biochemical reaction, extraction, and other processing of raw materials. The synthesis, separation, concentration, purification, preparation of biological pesticides, and their application as a crop pathology treatment, are described. These biological pesticides may be used disease prevention and control for crops and other plants.

The present invention relates to enzyme compositions for high temperature saccharification of cellulosic material and to uses thereof.

A method for treating biomass including lignocellulosic polymers. The biomass is treated in a mixture of water with at least one oxidizing agent and steam at a temperature in a range of from about 130° C. to about 220° C. for a period from about 5 seconds to about 10 hours. The pH of the mixture is periodically measured for substantially an entire duration of the treating step. As necessary, based on the measured pH of the mixture, adjusting the pH of the mixture into a range of from about pH 4.5 to about pH 7.5 by adding a base to the mixture.

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.

This disclosure describes processes for using a single cellulosic feedstock or a combination of two or more different cellulosic feedstocks with a starch component to produce a fermented product. The process includes separating the components of the cellulosic feedstocks with fractionation, pretreating a component with wet fractionation with chemicals, hydrolysis and fermenta-tion of the pretreated feedstock(s) to produce cellulosic biofuel. The process may include combining the cellulosic feedstock(s) with other components to a cook and/or a fermentation process, distilling and dehydrating the combined components to produce the biofuel. The process may also include producing a whole stillage stream from the feedstock(s) and mechanically processing the whole stillage stream to produce a high-value protein animal feed.

The present invention relates generally to the field of industrial biotechnology and particularly to an improved hydrolysis method for increasing sugar production from a high solids concentration of lignocellulosic biomass, especially one derived from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by enzymatic hydrolysis of a lignocellulosic biomass to obtain a slurry, wherein the hydrolysis comprises aliquot additions of enzyme and lignocellulosic biomass; and removal of sugars from the slurry and washing of the residual lignocellulosic biomass.