Artificial seawater-assisted fractionation of wheat straw and its subsequent usage for the production of branched fatty acids and squalene-enriched lipid and trehalose
摘要
Artificial seawater-based delignification and hydrolysis of wheat straw supported the production of valuable metabolites by the halophilic bacterium Lentibacillus salarius BPIITR. Alkaline wet oxidative delignification with artificial seawater efficiently removed 12.25% of lignin, while subsequent artificial seawater-assisted hydrothermal treatment solubilized 67.05% of hemicellulose, enriching cellulose content to 70.17%. Optimized cellulose hydrolysis yielded 310.68 ± 1.88 mg/g of total sugar (287.88 ± 2.10 mg/g hexose; 22.80 ±3.28 mg/g pentose) of cellulose-rich residual biomass. Fermentation of the xylose-rich hydrolysate-artificial seawater by L. salarius BPIITR yielded a biomass concentration of 7.43 g/L and a volumetric lipid yield of 1.86 g/L, with lipids enriched in anteiso (52.51%) and iso (32.57%) branched-chain fatty acids. The glucose-rich hydrolysate-artificial seawater increased squalene (719.66 μg/g dcw) and trehalose (200.39 mg/g dcw) accumulation in the bacterial biomass. The hydrolysates contained lignin monomers, such as ferulic acid, vanillic acid, and syringic acid, which can serve as precursors for aromatic compounds. Overall mass balance highlighted that seawater-based hydrolysis and fermentation boosted product yields, including lipid, squalene, bacterial biomass, and trehalose. These findings demonstrate the potential of seawater for valorising wheat straw into high-value products through biorefinery.