Application of Electroporation Technique in Biofuel Processing

Abstract

Abstract. Biofuels production is mostly oriented with fermentation process, which requires fermentable sugar as nutrient for microbial growth. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) represents the most attractive, low-cost feedstock for biofuel production, it is now arousing great interest. The cellulose that is embedded in the lignin matrix has an insoluble, highlycrystalline structure, so it is difficult to hydrolyze into fermentable sugar or cell protein. On the other hand, microbial lipid has been studying as substitute of plant oils or animal fat to produce biodiesel. It is still a great challenge to extract maximum lipid from microbial cells (yeast, fungi, algae) investing minimum energy.Electroporation (EP) of LCB results a significant increase in cell conductivity and permeability caused due to the application of an external electric field. EP is required to alter the size and structure of the biomass, to reduce the cellulose crystallinity, and increase their porosity as well as chemical composition, so that the hydrolysis of the carbohydrate fraction to monomeric sugars can be achieved rapidly and with greater yields. Furthermore, EP has a great potential to disrupt the microbial cell walls within few seconds to bring out the intracellular materials (lipid) to the solution. Therefore, this study aims to describe the challenges and prospect of application of EP technique in biofuels processing.

Microfluidics based electroporation for inactivation of microorganisms

“…Electroporation is an effective method used in biological treatment with advantages that includes its high throughput, no usage of chemicals, and its effectiveness on a wide range of microorganisms (Adamo et al 2013;Haberl et al 2013;Lu et al 2005). It is a non-viral technology commonly used for the extraction of subcellular organelles as well as for the transfection of genes and drugs (Gehl 2003b;Mahnič-Kalamiza et al 2014;Weaver 2000;Yousuf et al 2017). During the extraction process, nanopores are formed within the cell membrane upon the application of direct electric field and when a threshold transmembrane potential is met (Adamo et al 2013;Gehl 2003b;Haberl et al 2013;Lu et al 2005).…”