Biotechnological Approaches to Generate Biogenic Solvents and Energy Carriers from Renewable Resources

Abstract

Background: Current threats connected to the ongoing depletion of fossil resources and elevated levels of greenhouse gases accelerating climate change and global warming provoke a renaissance of biotechnological production of various organic bulk chemicals, which, particularly during the second half of the 20th century, were almost exclusively produced from fossil resources via chemosynthetic processes.

Keywords

• acetone
• anaerobes
• biofuels
• 2,3-butandiol
• clostridia
• energy carriers
• ethanol
• fermentation
• hydroxyalkanoate methyl esters
• inexpensive feedstocks
• isopropanol
• klebsiella
• polyhydroxyalkanoate (pha)
• saccharomyces cerevisiae
• solvents
• yeasts