It is now widely accepted that extremophilic microbes including thermophiles are recognized as one of the most efficient microbial groups in the conversion of solid wastes including lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels. For example, advantages of using thermostable cellulases, xylanases for lignocellulose degradation include higher stability (greater half-lives, allowing elongated hydrolysis times), low viscosity (increased solubility of reactants and products), increased flexibility for the process configurations, reduced risk of contamination, and lower energy cost for cooling in case of thermal pre-treatment of substrates. Therefore, carrying out hydrolysis and/or fermentation at higher temperature will ultimately lead to improved process performance through decreased enzyme dosage and reduced lignocellulose degradation time, thus, resulting in decreased costs. This session will discuss advantages and limitations of solid waste conversion technologies using Extremophiles and Their Enzymes.

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