Engineered Biocatalysts and Biomass Valorization for Sustainable Biofuel and Biochemical Production

The global transition toward a circular bioeconomy and carbon-neutral industrial landscape relies heavily on replacing fossil-based feedstocks with renewable biological resources. Lignocellulosic agricultural residues, forestry byproducts, industrial food wastes, and microalgal biomass represent abundant, sustainable carbon pools for generating renewable fuels and platform chemicals. However, the recalcitrance of raw biomass and the economic and operational hurdles of bioconversion processes—such as harsh reaction conditions, low enzyme stability, poor catalyst recyclability, and limited microbial robustness—remain significant bottlenecks to commercial scale-up.To overcome these barriers, the integration of advanced material engineering, synthetic biology, and bioprocess intensification has emerged as a transformative solution. Engineered biocatalysts—including rational enzyme immobilization onto functional matrices, multi-enzyme cascade platforms, and metabolically engineered production strains—offer exceptional stability, elevated catalytic efficiency, and improved recyclability across multi-cycle industrial operations. Coupling these engineered biocatalytic and microbial systems with advanced biomass fractionation and bioprocess optimization opens robust pathways to efficiently produce next-generation biofuels and value-added biochemicals.This Research Topic aims to highlight cutting-edge developments at the nexus of biocatalysis, synthetic biology, and industrial biotechnology. We welcome original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, and perspectives that showcase innovative strategies for designing engineered biocatalytic platforms, engineering microbial production hosts, intensifying biomass deconstruction, and optimizing downstream bioconversion into sustainable fuels and chemicals. Submissions are encouraged around, but not limited to, the following themes:- Rational Design and Engineering of Biocatalysts: Enzyme immobilization on functional matrices (magnetic, MOF, polymer, and hybrid supports), directed evolution, protein engineering, and multi-enzyme cascade systems.- Synthetic Biology and Strain Engineering: Metabolic and genetic engineering of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and microalgae for enhanced biocatalytic performance, tolerance to inhibitors, and efficient substrate utilization.- Biomass Pretreatment and Enzymatic Deconstruction: Green, ionic liquid-, ultrasonic-, and chemo-enzymatic fractionation of lignocellulose, algae, and agro-industrial wastes for enhanced sugar/lipid release.- Biofuel Production Pathways: Biocatalytic and microbial fermentation routes for bioethanol, biodiesel, biobutanol, biohydrogen, and biogas production.- Value-Added Biochemicals and Bioproducts: Conversion of biomass-derived intermediates into platform chemicals, bioplastics precursors, organic acids, and industrial biocompounds.- Digital and AI-Assisted Bioprocess Design: Machine learning, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence for biocatalyst discovery, reaction optimization, and bioreactor control.- Bioprocess Kinetics, Bioreactor Design, and Scale-Up: Continuous and immobilized-cell/enzyme reactor design, microfluidic bioprocesses, mass transfer optimization, and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of biorefineries.Note to authors: Submissions must highlight biological, biochemical, synthetic biology, or bioprocess engineering principles applied to industrial-scale production. Manuscripts focused purely on abiotic chemical catalysis, environmental contaminant remediation or life-cycle assessment, clinical/human health applications, or descriptive agronomic screening are outside the scope of this collection. Topic editors: Selvarajan Ethiraj, Melvin S. Samuel, Selvaraju Narayanasamy Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86235/engineered-biocatalysts-and-biomass-valorization-for-sustainable-biofuel-and-biochemical-production