Abstract
“Biorefinery” has gained importance as the energy-saving and environment-conscious process, which is the technology for productions of biofuels and green chemicals from renewable biomasses by useful microorganisms.By the selection of suitable lactic acid bacteria (LAB), organic acids such as l-, d-, or dl-forms of lactic acid (LA) and acetic acid can been produced from a variety of biomasses. We have proposed a cascade utilization of biomasses with LA fermentation by LAB, and have aimed at achieving “Lactate Industry” as a new and environment-friendly industry.However, there are several significant drawbacks to overcome in utilization of abundant and sustainable lignocellulosic biomasses as the fermentative substrates. We have studied in the wide fields such as screening and breeding of novel excellent LAB, establishment of fermentation process, and analysis of metabolism, and so on. In this review, we summarized the drawbacks of biorefinery using lignocellulosic biomasses and our strategies for “Lactate Industry”, and then introduced our recent studies on LA fermentation by novel isolated LAB, particularly Enterococcus mundtii QU 25named super LAB, and finally discussed the future prospects of “Intelligent Fermentation Technology”.
