Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01796-9

MINI-REVIEW

Current approaches and trends in the production of microbial

cellulases using residual lignocellulosic biomass: a bibliometric
analysis of the last 10 years
Joyce Cristina Gonçalvez Roth1   · Michele Hoeltz1   · Lisianne Brittes Benitez1 

Received: 20 August 2019 / Revised: 19 November 2019 / Accepted: 15 December 2019 / Published online: 11 January 2020
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Considering the potential use of lignocellulosic biomass residues in microbial cultures to produce cellulases, the objective of
this research was to investigate trends and discussions regarding scientific research conducted in this field through a biblio-
metric and scientometric analysis. Using the Elsevier Scopus database and VOSviewer software, scientific papers published
between 2007 and 2018 were investigated. The results showed that the production of cellulases is related to obtaining xyla-
nases and glucose. Obtaining of bioethanol and determining cellulolytic and xylanase activities were the relevant indicators
for the use of these enzymes. China, India and Brazil are countries with a high number of publications in this field, most
likely due to investments made between 2015 and 2017. This analysis showed that research on the use of lignocellulosic
residues is focused on obtaining biofuels through enzymatic hydrolysis.

Keywords  Bibliometry · Biofuels · Biomass · Microbial cellulase

Introduction Cellulases are defined as multienzyme complexes formed

Cellulose is the most abundant natural biological renewable
resource, and the production of bioproducts and bioenergy
using waste from this natural material is fundamental to
meeting the demand for sustainable processes. Cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin are the main constituents of lig-
nocellulosic materials, and their availability for use in bio-
processes is important to enabling its use, since cellulose
and hemicellulose are found in a stable crystalline struc-
ture (Iranmahboob et al. 2002; Kumar et al. 2009; Valencia
and Chambergo 2013; Thomas et al. 2016; Rodrigues et al.
2017).
Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt .
* Lisianne Brittes Benitez
lisianne@unisc.com
Joyce Cristina Gonçalvez Roth
joyce_goncalvez@hotmail.com
Michele Hoeltz
hoeltz@unisc.com
1
Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul., Av. Independência,
2293, Universitário, Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brazil
by three main components, endo-1,4-β-d-glucanase (EC
3.2.1.4), exoglucanase/exo-cellobiohydrolase (EC 3.2.1.91)
and β-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.21), which synergistically
hydrolyze the cellulose polymer into glucose monomers.
Cellulases are considered bioproducts with great economic
appeal due to various industrial applications, such as deter-
gent, textile, feed and food, paper and biofuel industries
(Zhang et al. 2006; Juturu and Wu 2014; Singhania et al.
2017).
Microbial cellulases were initially recognized for their
ability to deteriorate cellulosic materials used in American
camps during World War II. In 1950, the microorganism, the
Trichoderma viride fungus, that caused these deteriorations
and the enzymes excreted by it were known to degrade cel-
lulose. This was demonstrated in experiments conducted by
Dr. Elwyn T. Reese and Dr. Mary Mandel (White et al. 1950;
Reese 1956). Many advances have been made in recent dec-
ades, and the use of microbial cellulases in industrial pro-
cesses has rapidly been demonstrated.
Many investments have been made to optimize the pro-
duction of microbial cellulases from residual lignocellu-
losic biomass in the form of powders, bagasse, shells, brans
and residual cakes. These residues are available and suffi-
ciently abundant in all parts of the world, and burning these

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residues, which is the most common processing method,
compromises the environmental quality of ecosystems.
Therefore, the processing of residual lignocellulosic bio-
mass, in addition to being an adequate environmental alter-
native, can be economically attractive for the bioproducts
that it can create (Yang et al. 2006; El-Haggar 2007; Thomas
et al. 2016).
Bibliometrics is a tool designed to evaluate the scientific
production of researchers in several fields. Scientometrics
combined with bibliometrics enables an evolutionary quanti-
tative evaluation of the most diverse scientific fields and can
be applied to identify emerging areas of study. Scientomet-
rics performs a measurement of scientific communication,
while bibliometrics addresses more general information pro-
cesses (Da Silva and Pires Bianchi 2001; Patra et al. 2006).
The use of isolated bibliometric indicators is not an
appropriate interpretation of data. It is necessary to jointly
associate other metrics, such as Scientometrics, to provide
a realistic assessment of the scientific area of interest (Da
Silva and Pires Bianchi 2001). However, "scientific activity
cannot be reduced to the production, circulation, and con-
sumption of periodicals, much less confusing quantitative
article growth with the cognitive development of science"
(Santos and Kobashi 2009).
Bibliometric and scientometric analyses began in the
1960s but only came to be seen as tools of scientific anal-
ysis in the 1970s (Patra et al. 2006), the same period in
which discussions about environmental problems from the
production and nontreatment of waste began to gain trac-
tion in the scientific community. The Stockholm Confer-
ence (1972), which resulted in the publication of the report
"Limits to Growth" by the Club of Rome and the creation of
the "United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)," rein-
forced the concerns about the adverse environmental effects
(Pelizer et al. 2007).
The main tools used in bibliometric studies are the Web
of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar Metrics databases
(Table 1). These databases include different data and use dif-
ferent metric indicators that are very useful in bibliometric
research and can be used to determine the changes to areas
of study over time (Lopes et al. 2012).
Although there is an increasing number of scientific stud-
ies addressing the incorporation of agroindustrial residues
Table 1  Details of the main databases used in bibliometric studies. Source: Lopes et al. (2012), Elsevier (2017), Halevi et al. (2017)
Database Basis used to evaluate indexed journals
Web of Science (Thomson Reuters) Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
Scopus (Elsevier) Scimago Journal and Country Rank (SJR)
Google Scholar Metrics (Google) Lack of accurate indexing information
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Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
in microbiological processes, there is a lack of systematic
studies that indicate the evolution of this area of study. Con-
sidering the potential use of lignocellulosic biomass residues
in microbial cultures to produce microbial cellulases, the
objective of this research was to reveal relevant aspects by
the analysis of the temporal evolution and discuss the trends
of the scientific research conducted in this field through a
bibliometric and scientometric analysis.
Methodology
This research focused on the main aspects involving the use
of agroindustrial residues to produce microbial cellulases.
Initially, a general search was conducted in the Scopus and
Web of Science databases for the representative occurrence
of the number of publications provided by the respective
databases when using the terms "cellulase," "microorgan-
isms" and "fermentation", applied to scientific articles from
2007 to 2017. This first search (Search 1) considered the
presence of these terms in the title, abstract and keywords
of the article.
The search in the Scopus database yielded 333 articles,
while the Web of Science database yielded 125 articles.
This result was expected because of the wider range of jour-
nals included in the Scopus database (Falagas et al. 2008).
Although the databases mentioned differ in terms of scope,
volume of data and different coverage policies, the results
and impacts of the countries are correlated; that is, the cor-
relations between the two databases in terms of the number
of citations from countries and their respective classifica-
tions are similar (Archambault et al. 2009). Therefore, the
Elsevier Scopus database was chosen to perform the biblio-
metric analysis.
Afterwards, a systematic review of the content of arti-
cles was conducted by reading the abstracts, following the
PRISMA protocol (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
Reviews and Meta-Analysis), which shows the flow of infor-
mation with the different applied phases of the systematic
review (Fig. 1).
For the bibliometric analysis, VOSviewer software, ver-
sion 1.6.6 was used with 253 exported articles included
by the PRISMA protocol in the CSV format. This analysis
Access Time of coverage Indexed material
(citations)
Limited Since 1898 Scholarly literature
Limited Since 1970 Scholarly literature
Free Since 2004 All output regard-
less of peer-
review
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951 937

Fig. 1  Application of the PRISMA protocol to the 333 articles ini- Fig. 2  Application of the PRISMA protocol to the 94 articles initially
tially selected in the Elsevier Scopus database (Research 1) per- selected in the Elsevier Scopus database obtained by the query of the
formed on January 20, 2018 terms "cellulase production" and "microorganism" (Research 2) lim-
ited to the period from 2007 to 2018

used a binary counting method where the keywords were grouped according to similarity or interrelationship. The
present in both the title and the abstract of the included scientometric analysis included information provided by
articles. To include the formation of clusters, the criterion the Scopus database, which allowed the graphical analysis
of 12 minimum occurrences was adopted, resulting in 72 of the articles in relation to the year of publication, coun-
terms that were then grouped according to similarity or try of origin, affiliation and scientific areas of study. The
interrelationship. articles that were excluded after applying the PRISMA
Due to the results obtained in the first analysis, it was protocol were manually removed for the correct interpreta-
decided to perform two other searches to individualize the tion of the results that were obtained graphically.
analysis on the microbial production of cellulases and their
application in the period from 2007 to 2018. Afterwards,
the results of both searches were submitted to the PRISMA
protocol for the selection and inclusion of articles.
Regarding the terms "cellulase production" and "micro-
organism" (Search 2), the database found 94 articles whose
key words were present in the title, abstract or keywords
from 2007 to September 2018. Of these 94 articles, 59 were
excluded because they were revisions, were focused on the
application of microbial cellulases in fermentative processes
or did not present a direct relationship with microbial cellu-
lases (Fig. 2). For the terms "cellulase" and "potential appli-
cation" (Search 3), the database found 158 articles whose
key words were present in the title, abstract or keywords
from 2007 to September 2018. After the abstracts were read,
56 articles were excluded, according to Fig. 3.
For these new bibliometric mappings, a binary count-
ing method was used, which included the presence of the
terms searched in the title, abstract or keywords of the
Fig. 3  Application of the PRISMA protocol to the 158 articles ini-
article. The formation of the clusters for the two analyses
tially selected in the Elsevier Scopus database obtained by the query
was based on the criterion of 5 minimum occurrences, for the terms "cellulase" and "potential application" (Research 3) lim-
resulting in 48 and 46 terms, respectively, which were then ited to the period from 2007 to 2018

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Results and discussion
Bibliometry
The clusters obtained in Research 1 show the different
approaches identified by the abstracts of the articles, as fol-
lows: (i) the use of the cellulase enzyme to obtain bioethanol
and the different processes used for this purpose, such as
the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass and saccharification
(red cluster), and (ii) production of the cellulase enzyme
from microbial cultures (green and blue clusters) (Fig. 4).
The enhancement to the red cluster is expected because of
the popularity of cellulases in 2005 due to the production of
lignocellulosic ethanol through enzymatic hydrolysis (Sin-
ghania et al. 2017). However, the use of cellulases through
microbial cultures is not focused on bioethanol alone, even
though this is currently the most popular use of cellulases
(Singhania et al. 2017). The investigation of aspects that are
intrinsic to the bioprocess of obtaining cellulase were lim-
ited in the graphical interpretation generated by the software.
The term "fermentation" used in the research perme-
ates the 3 clusters because the fermentative processes can
be observed from the perspective of microbial production,
through bioprocesses, correlating closely with the blue and
green clusters, and also in the applied industrial perspective,
by the use of totally or partially isolated enzymes, focus-
ing on the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials. There-
fore, the duality observed by the above-generated clusters
yielded incorrect inferences regarding the arguments and
trends identified by bibliometric mapping, which suggested
Fig. 4  Clusters formed by keywords used in the bibliometric analysis. The dimensions of the circles represent the occurrences of the terms in the
analysis of the 253 articles included in the bibliometric analysis (Research 1)
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a new search. For the updated search, microbial production
and the potential applications of cellulase were individually
investigated (Research 2 and 3).
In Fig. 5, the new bibliographic mapping indicated by
the software can be observed and allows a clear and more
precise analysis of the microbial production of cellulase. In
this search, we were able to highlight issues related to the
microbial production of cellulases, such as the bioprocesses,
substrates and microorganisms that were used as well as
the methodologies used for the quantification of cellulolytic
enzymatic activities.
The clusters that were generated demonstrated specific
methodologies for the determination of microbial cellulo-
lytic activities from glucose generated by the degradation of
cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass (green clus-
ter) and two other groups are shown that are closely related
to the bioprocesses involved in the production of the cellulo-
lytic/hemicellulolytic enzyme complex, which is attributed
to the presence of xylanase (blue and red clusters). Although
there was a difference between the groups generated by the
software, the analysis was performed considering the blue
and red clusters as a single group due to their similarities.
The main link between the clusters is due to the term
"enzyme production", whose influence of the occurrences
(number of relations of the term to term) is 23% (result pro-
vided by the software). This connection between the groups
is important and was expected, since the analysis conducted
on the included articles was focused on this theme, which is
closely related to bioprocessing with xylanases and glucose
(sugar).
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951 939
Fig. 5  Clusters formed by the
keywords "cellulase production"
and "cellulase" used in Research
2. The dimensions of the circles
represent the occurrences of the
terms in the analysis of the 94
articles included in the biblio-
metric analysis
In addition, the determination of enzymatic activities
by the analytical methods routinely used is based on the
quantification of glucose content in solution resulting from
carbohydrate hydrolysis (e.g., cellulose) by the action of the
enzyme. Thus, a higher amount of glucose indirectly reflects
higher enzymatic microbial productivity, which reflects the
interaction between the terms of the blue and green cluster.
The distance between the green and blue clusters could
be explained by the differences in the performance of enzy-
matic complexes to cellulose and hemicellulose polymers.
Cellulase activity in fermentation processes can be deter-
mined by specific methodologies for the multienzyme com-
plex cellulase, including endo-1,4-beta-d-glucanase (EC
3.2.1.4), exoglucanase/exo-cellobiohydrolase (EC 3.2. 1.91)
and beta-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.21). These components act
synergistically for complete hydrolysis of the cellulose poly-
mer in glucose monomers (Singhania et al. 2017).
Hemicellulolytic activity is especially associated with
disruption of the xylan polymer, which represents the main
polymer of hemicellulose. Xylans are second to cellulose
with respect to constituency and abundancy of the polysac-
charides available in lignocellulosic biomass. Currently,
industrial xylanases are mesophilic and neutrophilic. Sta-
ble enzymes under extreme environmental conditions, such
as temperature and pH, could advance the bioprocesses of
lignocellulosic biomass conversion, especially with respect
to hemicellulose hydrolysis (Collins et al. 2005; Gonçalves
et al. 2005; Gonçalves et al. 2015).
For biotechnological applications, stable xylanases in
specific temperature and pH ranges may be required. For
example, in the paper industry, stable enzymes in thermoal-
kaliphilic conditions are useful, while in the food industry,
highly active enzymes at moderate temperatures are more
relevant. Many commercial products can be obtained from
xylan, such as xylitol, ethanol, lactic acid and furfural. The
recent challenge in the use of xylanases is the development
of an economical process that solubilizes the lignocellulosic
material and allows its use as a renewable source of energy, a
supplement in animal feed and for the manufacture of bever-
ages, food, textiles and industrial pulp and paper (Shallom
and Shoham 2003; Collins et al. 2005; Juturu and Wu 2014;
Bajpai 2014a).
This multiplicity of xylan is justified by the nontoxic and
biocompatible properties inherent to the molecule, provid-
ing many biotechnological applications by various indus-
tries (Bajpai 2014b; Petzold-Welcke et al. 2014; Naidu et al.
2018). The microorganisms that are most prominently used
for the extracellular production of xylanases include Asper-
gillus niger and Trichoderma viride fungi in addition to the
fungal genera Phanerochaetes, Chytridiomycetes, Rumino-
coccus, and bacterial genera Streptomyces, Clostridium and
Bacillus, as well the phylum Fibrobacteres (Shallom and
Shoham 2003; Collins et al. 2005; Gonçalves et al. 2005).
The selection of microorganisms, fungi or bacteria, with
a favorable metabolic capacity, combined with the optimiza-
tion of biomass conversion processes are crucial, because the
microbial enzymes are influenced by a variety of nutritional
and physiological factors, which explains the proximity of
the blue and red clusters (Fig. 5). Only a few microorgan-
isms can address the obstacle posed by lignin, which allows
the effective action of hemicellulases and cellulases and the
subsequent use of vegetable polysaccharides by other micro-
organisms. This process is characterized as an oxidative pro-
cess that does not directly depend on the culture conditions
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of microorganisms that are able to degrade lignin, which is
considered an important factor in the industrial uses of lig-
nocellulosic biomass to obtain bioproducts such as bioetha-
nol and other materials based on cellulose (Kirk and Farrell
1987; Lynd et al. 2002; Ruiz‐Dueñas and Martínez 2009;
Thomas et al. 2018).
Lignin is enzymatically hydrolyzed (by laccases among
other enzymes), especially by fungi under solid substrate
fermentation (SSF). SSF is more applicable and simple
for hydrolyzing lignocellulosic biomass because insoluble
materials act by supporting microorganisms that also use
it as a source of nutrients. Water is generally complexed
in the solid matrix of the substrate, and in the presence or
absence of free water, the risk of contamination is reduced.
The moisture content and particle size are important when
agroindustrial residues are used because these factors can
limit SSF (Malherbe and Cloete 2002; Couto and Sanromán
2006; Yang et al. 2006; Castro and Pereira Jr 2010; Behera
and Ray 2016; Ergun and Urek 2017).
Solid substrate fermentation provides higher yields of
enzymatic production compared to submerged fermentation
(SmF) in addition to lower operating costs. However, it is
estimated that 80% of the worldwide production of hemi-
cellulolytic enzymes is obtained by SmF (Polizeli et al.
2005; Couto and Sanromán 2006; Yang et al. 2006; Cas-
tro and Pereira Jr 2010; Behera and Ray 2016; Ergun and
Urek 2017) as confirmed by the presence and interaction of
the search terms "submerged fermentation", "xylanase" and
"enzyme production”, as shown in the blue cluster.
Fungi influence the red cluster possibly due to their
prominent use in crops that target the industrial production
of cellulases. Most fungi are endo- and exo-cellulase pro-
ducers, and the combinations of these enzymes may lead
to a synergistic increase in cellulose degradation activity,
facilitating both internal and external cleavage of cellulose
molecules (Moraïs et al. 2010; Sharma and Yazdani 2016).
Exoglucanases directly act on the substrate by releasing cel-
lobiose or glucose from the polymer, thus destratifying the
fibers and physically breaking down the substrate, which
maximizes cellulose hydrolysis.
Bacteria, which mostly only produce endoglucanases, are
robust and versatile enzymatic sources because they present
high growth rates and multienzymatic complexes (Asgher
et al. 2007). The majority of bacterial cellulases originate
from the Bacillus genus (Sharma and Yazdani 2016), as
shown by the red cluster.
For fungi or bacteria, chemical and physical pretreat-
ments may be required to provide cellulose and hemicellu-
lose. These pretreatments increase the porosity of vegetable
fibers and reduce its crystallinity, which affects the avail-
able surface area. Sequentially, biomass is processed into
constitutive sugar monomers through a hydrolysis reaction
(Mcmillan 1994; Kumar et al. 2009; Thomas et al. 2016).
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Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
Smaller environmental impacts associated with pollution
are caused by enzymatic hydrolysis and saccharification of
biomass to fermentable sugars. The ideal environmental
conditions for the activity of these enzymes generally occur
under mild environmental conditions, which include tem-
perature, pressure and pH, compared to chemical processes
involving the hydrolysis of pretreated biomass. Enzymatic
hydrolysis also reduces energy expenditure, the amount of
materials used to make equipment and the occurrence of
toxic substances, such as acetic acid, furfural and hydroxy-
methylfurfural, when fungi and bacteria are used to pro-
duce cellulase (Iranmahboob et al. 2002; Kumar et al. 2009;
Juturu and Wu 2014; Jung et al. 2015; Singhania et al. 2017;
Naidu et al. 2018).
Agroindustrial wastes are abundant and available in all
parts of the world, and in addition to being an adequate envi-
ronmental alternative, their processing for the production
of cellulases is advantageous from an economic point of
view. Dhabhai et al. (2013) demonstrated that thermal pre-
treatment and acid hydrolysis were able to increase surface
area, spore volume and reduce crystallinity, allowing a better
use of biomass and obtaining bioproducts. However, effi-
cient conversion processes for residual biomass need to be
ensured through research and development of new technolo-
gies that can transform the cellulase market and improve the
environmental quality of the systems (Sun and Cheng 2002;
Zhang and Lynd 2004; Zhang et al. 2006; Kumar et al. 2009;
Thomas et al. 2016; Rodrigues et al. 2017).
Efficient and economically feasible processes for the
conversion of residual biomass to cellulases can be ensured
by the following approaches: (i) improving efficiency in the
production of enzymes using genetically modified organ-
isms, (ii) using inexpensive raw materials, (iii) engineering
immobilization and enzymatic recycling approaches, and
(iv) increasing the saccharification capacity of the substrate
using enzymatic cocktails that are capable of acting on a
wide variety of substrates. For this purpose, various cellulo-
lytic enzymes may be used in combination, including ligno-
cellulases, such as xylanases (Zhang and Lynd 2004; Zhang
et al. 2006; Behera and Ray 2016; Thomas et al. 2016; Ergun
and Urek 2017; Sóti et al. 2018).
Genes that are responsible for the production of cel-
lulases have been isolated from Penicillium oxalicum and
showed great importance in the production of cellulases
and xylanases (Ye et al. 2017). Similarly, a mutant strain of
Trichoderma reesei, whose hydrolysis efficiency of alkali
pretreated corn straw reached approximately 99% of glu-
cose conversion, produced more cellulases compared to the
native strain (Zhang et al. 2017). Tenth generation spores
of the Talaromyces verruculosus fungus that were obtained
by UV radiation at a wavelength of 254 nm were also able
to increase the production of endoglucanases (Jain and
Agrawal 2018).
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Corn hydrolysates have been used in ethanol production
by implementing a multienzyme system with a strain of the
genus Gracilibacillus, which reached an efficiency above
50% for the production of bioethanol (Yu and Li 2015).
Bagasse, corn cob and rice straw residues (all submitted to
pretreatment) have been used by Bacillus licheniformis for
the evaluation of cellulase production by an experimental
design (Plackett–Burman), which showed that the addi-
tion of Tween-20 and a temperature of 43.35 °C were the
optimal conditions for maximum productivity (Shajahan
et al. 2017).
Additionally, the optimal experimental conditions for
the production of cellulases by Bacillus subtilis MUS1 have
been evaluated, and the optimization of production was per-
formed by the Plackett–Burman delineation, which demon-
strated that carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), yeast extract,
NaCl, pH, M ­ gSO4 and N ­ aNO3 were the most significant
factors that affected the production and resulted in increasing
the enzymatic activity approximately three-fold compared to
the nonoptimized condition (Screena and Sebastian 2018).
Bacillus sp. was used for extracellular enzymatic pro-
duction (endoglucanases, total cellulase and β-glycosidase)
from solid residues of corn grain and was sensitive to all
antibiotics tested, indicating that it is safe for the production
of cellulases (Thomas et al. 2018). Another strain of Bacil-
lus sp. was also evaluated for the processing of sugarcane
bagasse and corn maceration liquor to produce avicellase
and CMCase. Maximum production was reached after 120
and 168 h, respectively, at 70 °C. The potential applications
of these enzymes by the detergent industry has been evalu-
ated by investigating residual cellulase activity after contact
with detergent solutions (Ladeira et al. 2015).
The production of cellulases can greatly contribute to the
viability of second -generation ethanol by increasing the
yield using fermented hydrolysates of sugarcane bagasse.
Yields higher than 11% were obtained when solid fermenta-
tion was used followed by submersion (sequential fermenta-
tion) (Cunha et al. 2017).
Rice straw has been shown to be an interesting substrate
for cellulase production because biomass pretreatment is
important for the improvement of T. reesei enzymatic activ-
ity, and the combined use of the enzyme complexes from
both strains significantly increased enzymatic activity (Kogo
et al. 2017).
Enzymatic immobilization has been shown to increase
the hydrolytic efficiency of plant and fruit residues and the
recovery of anthocyanins (pigments) due to the stability of
immobilized cellulases, which are maintained twice as long
as free enzymes (Yuan et al. 2016). Cellulase immobiliza-
tion was also shown to be an interesting technique due to
increased stability and reduction of denaturation when com-
pared to free enzyme when employing metal–organic frame-
works to immobilize enzyme cellulose (Ahmed et al. 2018).
Supplementation of cellulases with xylanase from
Aspergillus sp. improved the saccharification of rice straw
pretreated with alkali by 25% compared to the use of xyla-
nase-free cellulases. Xylanase was produced by solid-state
fermentation after 96 h of incubation, 80% substrate mois-
ture, pH 4.8 and a temperature of 25 °C using a carbon or
nitrogen source for wheat bran and yeast extract, respectively
(Thomas et al. 2016).
Since 2005, microbial cellulases have been very popu-
lar due to the resurgence of bioethanol production as an
alternative to fossil fuels. There are other routes that allow
the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into ethanol, but
the enzyme has become popular due to its sustainability. In
addition, recycling of residual biomass can promote local
economies while eliminating potential competition with
crops for food supplies and reducing processing costs and
disposal of generated waste. Additionally, the production
cost of cellulase still represents a significant fraction of the
production cost of bioethanol (Singhania et al. 2017; Gomes
et al. 2018).
In Search 3, three clusters were generated (Fig. 6) that
evidenced the following:
(i) the use of cellulase to obtain biofuels, specifically
bioethanol, obtained through the pretreatment of lig-
nocellulosic biomass by enzymatic hydrolysis allows
for the removal of lignin and hemicellulose for sac-
charification and obtaining fermentable sugars, such
as glucose, bioethanol or second generation ethanol
(E2G) (red cluster);
(ii) different methods for determining the enzymatic
activity of the cellulolytic complex and the consump-
tion of substrates for cellulases for this quantifica-
tion are closely associated with the terms "avicel",
"cellobiose", "glucosidase" and "CMCase" in addi-
tion to the importance of fungi and the use of crude
enzymes for the production of bioethanol, since fungi
are more adapted to fermentative conditions (such as
acidity) (green cluster); and
(iii) the use of microbial cellulases (associated with
the term bacillus) to obtain fermentable sugars or
the treatment of lignocellulosic biomass to obtain
xylanase for industrial use, either by the bioethanol
industry or the paper industry.
The link between the three groups that is clearly formed
is due to the optimization of microbial processes for the
production of cellulases and their applications. Although
references are not made to the application of microbial cellu-
lases in the search of articles in the database, the mapping of
the data was able to determine this connection by indicating
close interrelations with the main and current trends for the
use of cellulases in the field of biofuels.
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Fig. 6  Clusters formed using the keywords "cellulase" and "potential application" in Research 3, where the dimensions of the circles under each
term represent the influence of the term in relation with the other terms
A considerable distance between the terms "fungi" and
"xylanase" is observed, which, according to Motta et al.
(2013) could be justified by the low biomass yield in fermen-
tative processes in which the use of agitation to homogenize
the fermented medium may negatively affect the develop-
ment of fungal biomass, especially by hyphae rupture. How-
ever, submerged fermentation processes are considered opti-
mal for the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material
whose yield is easily affected by fluctuations in fermentation
conditions, better controlled when conducted in a submerged
mode (De Souza 2013; Akram et al. 2018).
In the green cluster, most commercial cellulases are
obtained through the use of filamentous fungi, which
explains the composition of the group. In this cluster there is
the substrate "avicel", industrially used to induce the produc-
tion of cellulases, the determination of enzymatic activity by
"CMCase" and the products of cellulose hydrolysis, such as
the dimer "cellobiose". The enzymes "glycosidases", which
act on the β-1,4-glycosidic bonds present in the linear chains
of the d-glucose units in cellulose, stand out in the cluster.
β-Glucosidase is prominent in the production of lignocellu-
losic ethanol, which is demonstrated by the proximity of this
term to "bioethanol". It is important to note that the ideal pH
conditions for conducting the submerged fermentative pro-
cess are perfectly suited for most industries, especially those
of paper and cellulose, highlighted in the cluster. To obtain
xylanases is also observed applying submerged fermentation
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Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
processes (Motta et al. 2013; Feng et al. 2016; Singhania
et al. 2017; Akram et al. 2018; Chang et al. 2018).
In the red cluster, which suggests the industrial tendency
of applying cellulases, terms are closely related to the pro-
cess of obtaining biofuels. These terms are related to the
hydrolysis of lignocellulose to glucose and involving the
degradation of lignin to cellulose and hemicellulose release.
Microorganisms, especially fungi, have enzymatic abilities
capable of degrading the plant cell wall through a synergis-
tic action that leads to glucose release (Akram et al. 2018;
Singhania et al. 2017). The connection between the terms
present in this cluster proves that the main route to obtain
ethanol is through the use of bioprocesses, in which sugars
are converted into ethanol through the performance of yeasts
(Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for example) via saccharifica-
tion. A sustainable option for this process and for the global
fuel market has been made possible by obtaining glucose via
residual biomass lignocellulosic (Souza 2012; Lopes et al.
2016; Akram et al. 2018), referenced by the presence of the
terms "pretreatment", " biofuel", ’’ ’biofuel production" and
"enzymatic hydrolysis".
Pretreatment is an essential step for obtaining biofuels,
because only this way there is a rupture of the cellulose crys-
talline structure and breakdown of the matrix bound to hemi-
cellulose and lignin, which increase the surface area and
porosity of cellulose. This process however, represents an
economic barrier to the expansion of biofuel production, yet
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951 943
it is an important technological alternative for not compet-
ing with food production, since it is obtained from residual
biomass (Mood et al. 2013), such as maize straw, highlighted
in the figure.
Among the strategies to circumvent the barriers imposed
by biomass pretreatment would be the genetic modification
of plant cell walls, altering cellulose crystallinity, increasing
hemicellulose content and reducing lignin levels. For this,
the selection of appropriate genes is a fundamental step,
reflecting directly and mainly on the relationships between
the terms "gene" (green cluster) "xylanase" (blue cluster)
"pretreatment" and "biofuel" (red cluster) (Mood et  al.
2013).
The last 40 years have been marked by many scientific
and technological advances related to bioprocesses, contrib-
uting significantly to the evolution of the ethanol industry
in Brazil and worldwide (Lopes et al. 2016). In Fig. 7, it can
be seen from the relevance of the terms that these scientific
contributions allowed a better understanding and consolida-
tion of the processes associated with obtaining first genera-
tion (E1G) and recently second generation (E2G) ethanol.
The first generation of biofuels proved potential for large-
scale production of renewable fuels, especially through the
use of corn and sugarcane. This great productive orientation
remained until 2015 with the stabilization of world produc-
tion, with second-generation biofuels being produced on a
Fig. 7  Relevance of the terms in the period from 2012 to 2017, which demonstrated the improvement of processes in the biofuel industry
commercial scale. By 2009 several were E2G biofuel pilot
and demonstration facilities especially in North America,
Europe, Brazil and Asia (Nguyen et al 2017).
E2G biofuels use a wide variety of non-food biomass and
can be derived from any lignocellulosic material. In addi-
tion, they allow variable bioproducts that go beyond etha-
nol to include biodiesel (Nguyen et al 2017; Hassan et al.
2019). Specifically, cellulosic ethanol has been accounted
for worldwide as a renewable fuel since 2011, when in Fig. 7
there is a strong emphasis on the term "xylanase", "optimal
activity" related to enzymatic treatment of residual biomass
and obtaining ’’fermentable sugar".
The use of lignocellulosic waste materials and low-value
is expressed as a valuable approach to the reduction of pro-
duction costs and to encourage the use of ethanol as a biofuel
(de Souza 2013; Lopes et al. 2016) evidenced by the terms
"saccharification", "glucose" and "pretreatment" of bio-
mass via "enzimatic hydrolisis", especially related to E2G
"biofuel". The term "corn stover" appears in the figure in a
centralized position as it is considered the main bioethanol
feedstock worldwide (Hassan et al. 2019). Environmentally
and economically viable energy sources support important
global changes and the direction of innovation in renewable
biofuels is therefore of great importance for policy mak-
ers and investors, as well as to the scientific community
through research and development. This is demonstrated by
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944
the relevance of terms over the years (Fig. 7) and coincides
with the period of greater investment in renewable energy
by developing countries (Fig. 8).
Investments made by developed countries increased sig-
nificantly starting in 2009 and reached the greatest level in
2011. After a significant reduction, the trend remained stable
between 2012 and 2015. From 2016 onwards, the level of
investment declined, and in 2017, the rates were lower than
the year of the start of the survey (2007). For developing
countries, investments continued to grow until 2016, when
investments slightly decreased, followed by an increase in
the following year.
The difference between the investments made in 2017 by
developed and developing countries comes mainly from the
solar energy market, which for developing countries rep-
resented an increase of 41% that same year. However, it is
interesting to note that global investments in research and
development in the biomass and waste sector were higher
than in other sectors such as solar and wind energy (UNEP
2018), directly reflecting the increase in publications in this
area in 2017. Solar and wind energy systems are among the
largest sources of renewable energy, however, there is a sig-
nificant amount of work aimed at optimizing the use of other
renewable sources for power generation such as hydroelec-
tric, wind, geothermal, lignocellulosic biomass and biofuel
(Iqbal et al. 2014; Vohra et al. 2014, Banerjee et al. 2018,
Viviescas et al. 2019).
The great potential associated with lignocellulosic energy
is directly associated with its availability and renewable
nature, which has fueled and continues to fuel a growing
Fig. 8  Publications related to the keywords “cellulase”, “microorganisms” and “fermentation”) used in the bibliometric analysis from 2007 to
2017. Source: Adapted from Elsevier (2017) and UNEP (2018)
13
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
technological and commercial interest in the area. The tech-
nologies employed to obtain lignocellulosic biofuels are
considered emerging and consequently characterized by an
intense patent race (Toivanen and Novotny 2017). There is
a large volume of patent applications that were submitted
from 2010 to 2017, a period that coincides with periods of
major global investments, but this is much lower than the
number of scientific documents that were published in the
same period of time. This indicates that the research and
development of related technologies is still very small and
requires more investments (De Figueiredo et al. 2018).
Publications associated with the potential applications of
cellulases that indicate a growing trend in the area of biofu-
els correspond with the similar growing research trends in
developing countries, whose origin of approximately 70%
of articles is associated with countries such as China, India
and Brazil. Even with the reduced number of publications in
2016, this trend continues to increase at levels above those
observed from 2007 to 2012. With regard to published
papers, most representative countries are considered in
development; therefore, an assessment that includes invest-
ments in renewable energy in these countries is relevant.
Considering the investments made by developing countries
and carried out by these countries, investments continued to
increase in 2007, reaching their highest value in 2015. From
2015, the investments made by developed countries were
sustained until 2017.
Global investments dropped by 37% in 2015, which
was the most significant change observed from 2004 to
2016 (UNEP 2018); however, this trend was not observed
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951 945
for developing countries. China, India and Brazil alone
accounted for more than 50% of the investments made in
2017 by developing countries. It is observed that China is
the country that received in 2017, the largest global invest-
ments in renewable energy, and even though this total, bio-
mass represents less than 1% of these investments, is still
higher than the investments made by the other countries
considered (United States and European countries) in this
same sector (UNEP 2018). The predicted scenario for the
year 2050 indicates that a significant share of residual bio-
mass will be used for biofuels in the transport fuel market.
Half of this production demand will be from countries such
as China and India, which will supply approximately 20%
of this need together (Eisentraut 2010).
Another relevant issue to be considered concerns the
logistics systems for the service of commercial plants that
would allow the transformation of economically competitive
E2G. This is the case in India, where the predominance of
small farms is predicted to increase the logistic complexity
of residual lignocellulosic biomass processing (Eisentraut
2010; Hiloidhari et al. 2014).
In the case of Brazil, the already consolidated processes
of obtaining ethanol through maize or sugarcane should not
be replaced by cellulose ethanol due to its technical and
economic feasibility for commercial production. Even with
numerous advantages, such as noncompetition with the food
chain and especially the availability of raw material, cel-
lulosic ethanol is still only produced on a small scale, espe-
cially for units distributed in Europe (Feres 2010; Rainer
et al. 2013; Paulova et al. 2015; Song et al. 2018).
The technologies that are used to produce ethanol are lim-
ited and reflects the exhaustion of efficiency in agricultural
and industrial productivity, where the technology that is cur-
rently used for first generation ethanol (E1G) is very close
to their theoretical limits. While the productivity increase
in E1G is limited to a few percentage units, productivity
through new conversion routes, such as residual biomass,
is estimated at five-fold higher values (Nyko et al. 2010).
The United States, Germany and Japan are considered
world leaders in lignocellulosic biofuels, and large invest-
ments in research in this sector have been demonstrated.
However, even supporting the biofuels and bioenergy sector,
Europe still does not take such an inclusive approach to this
sector (Toivanen and Novotny 2017; Hassan et al. 2019)
which reflects on the expression of the number of industrial
patents associated with biofuels, firstly China followed by
the US and Brazil. It clearly reinforces the trends associated
with the potential and high investments from these coun-
tries in technologies for the generation of renewable fuels
(Balat and Balat 2009; Rainer et al. 2013; De Figueiredo
et al. 2018).
The first generation of biofuels provide an assurance
and using the traditional routes of conversion refers to
agricultural territorial expansion, which can lead to side
effects such as a decrease in food supply and a reduction
in forest areas. Therefore, second-generation biofuels may
be able to mitigate these effects and significantly improve
productivity, provided there is technological and economic
feasibility that can be aided by government interventions,
such as production subsidies or tax exemptions for cellulosic
ethanol (Feres 2010; Nyko et al. 2010; Paulova et al. 2015).
Therefore, investments and incentives are necessary to
meet a new and growing world energy demand attributed
to cellulosic ethanol, which reflects the new positions of
countries with respect to environmental policies and impacts
the reduction of fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse
gases (GHG) and an increase in the supply of biofuels and
its international trade.
In addition to its use in the emerging biofuel industry,
cellulases are also used in the textile, food and animal feed
industries by improving nutritional quality and digestibility
and as an industrial raw material that is used for obtain-
ing solvents and resins (Zhang et al. 2006; Sadhu and Maiti
2013). It is expected that in the coming years, global demand
for enzymes will significantly increase due to the character-
istics that they contribute to the process, such as reduced
waste of raw materials, high specificity and good biodegra-
dability, which are characteristics that address recent global
environmental concerns (Reetz 2010).
Distribution of publications by country
Investments in research and technological innovation are
some of the limiting variables that affect the cellulase mar-
ket, which have been observed in a number of scientific pub-
lications in this area of study. The number of documents
included when considering microbial cellulase production
(Research 2) in the bibliometric analysis shows that coun-
tries such as India, China and Brazil have prominent posi-
tions, with 28%, 16% and 12% of the publications, respec-
tively. This can be explained by the industrial importance
of cellulase and its demand that is motivated by the biofuel
industry, whose investments have stimulated the enzyme
market.
The generation of energy from biomass is one of the main
focus areas of renewable energy programs in India due to
the relatively uniform availability of biomass compared
with other renewable sources. This is due to the country’s
agricultural strength, which occupies prominent positions in
terms of agricultural production, whose main contribution of
lignocellulosic residues is from the cultivation of rice, sugar
cane, wheat and cotton (Hiloidhari et al. 2014).
The provision and use of lignocellulosic biomass to
obtain cellulases have become a promising market in
developing countries, and this alternative is already seen
13

946
as an opportunity, which is demonstrated by the number
of documents found that are attributed to India. Likewise,
China, which is an agricultural nation, is also prominent
in the microbial production of cellulases.
China is considered a prolific generator of biomass
residues, such as straw and forest residues. The main
use of straw (mainly from rice, wheat and corn crops)
is for the conversion into energy through direct combus-
tion and biochemical and physicochemical conversions,
which consolidates the technologies in the country (Irena
2014). The correlated evolution of the microbial cellulase
and bioethanol markets ensures economic benefits to the
country. The technologies involved in the consolidation of
the bioprocesses to produce bioethanol have made signifi-
cant progress with respect to research and development in
recent decades, and it is not the only biochemical product
of residual biomass (Fang et al. 2010).
Considering its complexities, particularities and chal-
lenges, the diversification of agricultural activities in
countries and regions indicates that there is a need for
regional technological solutions (Ferreira-Leitão et al.
2010). There is a great diversity of biomass residues in
Brazil that are derived from the agriculture industry, and
its bioprocessing could provide significant economic,
social and environmental benefits. Examples of biomass
residues that are found in Brazil include waste from pulp
paper, sawdust, sugar cane bagasse, cereal and corn straw,
rice husks, smoke powder, etc. (El-Haggar 2007; Castro
and Pereira Jr 2010).
Brazil is considered a pioneer in the development of tech-
nologies for the production of biofuels, and even though
there are less investments compared to the United States
and countries in Europe, Brazil is distinguished by reduc-
ing production costs, since it has an economically competi-
tive biomass industry based on sugar cane. The technology
Fig. 9  Distribution of docu-
ments by area of study that
were included in the second
bibliometric analysis using the
terms "cellulase production"
and "microorganism" (Research
2), in the period from 2007 and
2018
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Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
used in this industry is considered mature and consolidated
(Sousa and Macedo 2010; Bastos 2012; Machado 2013).
The competitive advantages attributed to Brazil with
respect to territorial availability and consolidated technology
applied to ethanol may not guarantee the long-term supply
of biofuels (Guevara et al. 2017). For continued progress
in the biofuel industry, Brazil requires great efforts from
the government, industry and universities through scientific
research and technical development.
Distribution of publications by area
of knowledge and origin
The production and the efficiency of cellulase and hemicel-
lulase on an industrial scale are important to bioprocessing,
which includes the selection and knowledge of the physiol-
ogy of cellulase-producing microorganisms in combination
with genetic engineering and fermentation process condi-
tions. Recent advances in recombinant DNA technology
allow the rapid identification of genes of new cellulase pro-
ducers that may enable large-scale production as well as cus-
tom solutions for various industrial applications (Behera and
Ray 2016; Srivastava et al. 2018). Together with bioprocess
technologies that can guarantee production efficiency, this
reflects the distribution of documents included in the respec-
tive areas of study (Fig. 9).
The search term "environmental sciences" provides repre-
sentativeness in terms of article publication, which is justi-
fied by the multidisciplinary nature of the field that combines
different sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology
to solve environmental problems associated with biomass
residues. In sequence, areas of study, which include micro-
biology, agricultural and biological sciences and chemical
engineering, appeared in the search results. Publications in
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951 947
these areas of study describe the production of microbial
cellulases involving the selection of microorganisms capable
of enhancing biodegradation processes and formulations of
new bioproducts of interest, such as enzymes, in addition
to the development and improvement of thermochemical
processes that can be used for the pretreatment of residual
biomass.
Despite the significant impact and importance of energy
issues on the recovery and utilization of biomass waste, sci-
entometric analysis of publications associated with search
terms shows that the subarea of energy is approximately 7%
of the direct references to the terms used in the search.
When verifying the percentage significance of each of the
areas, the final sum exceeded 100%. This is due to the inclu-
sion of more than one area of study in the same publication.
In this analysis, some publications were included in four
different areas of study, specifically in those areas of study
in which the percentage values were evaluated.
Regarding the origin of the documents that were ana-
lyzed, in the period of time from 2007 to 2018, the jour-
nal Bioresource Technology published approximately 9%
of all articles, followed by Biotechnology for Biofuels and
Bioresources with 7 and 5%, respectively. Even with a simi-
lar number of publications, when the number of citations
received by the respective journals were compared, the per-
centages reflect differences with respect to the importance
of microbial cellulase production. Analyzing the number
of citations received by scientific papers published in these
journals, approximately 60% of citations are from articles
published in Bioresource Technology, followed by Biotech-
nology for Biofuels and Bioresources, with 19 and 15%,
respectively.
This higher number of citations from articles published in
Bioresource Technology specifically corresponds an article
that received 70% of all citations, "Strain improvement of
Penicillium janthinellum NCIM 1171 for increased cellulase
production” , which was published in 2007 and written by
Adsul and collaborators. In addition, half of the documents
included and linked to this journal were published after 2016
and may still receive citations in future publications.
Furthermore, articles from the journal Biotechnology
for Biofuels are more recent, which accounts for the small-
est number of citations. These articles began receiving
increased publicity in 2014, which coincides with the grow-
ing number of biofuel investments by developing countries,
and the origin of the research published in this journal is
mostly articles submitted Chinese researchers. The area of
biofuels is expanding; therefore, jobs that involve the use of
microbial cellulases in bioprocesses for the production of
bioethanol are increasing. Similarly, the citations of research
articles in this area of study are also increasing.
The number of citations corresponding to the jour-
nal Bioresource Technology indicates the importance of
lignocellulosic biomass in the production of microbial cellu-
lases; although, the graph created by the VosViewer software
for the second bibliometric analysis did not directly refer to
residual biomass. The scientific articles that were evaluated
in this study were published in this journal between 2011
and 2013. Cellulases are protagonists of the fuel industry
if residual biomass becomes the raw material that is used
to produce bioethanol, which is already a trend that was
initially observed in the bibliometric analysis.
Trends and research opportunities
Many lignocellulosic residues are upcycled and are cur-
rently not properly used with respect to their potential.
These residues, through the obtained bioproducts, have an
environmental and economic valuation, which allows a new
approach that is sustainable for agroindustrial processes and
waste generation. This trend has been observed by Bilal and
colleagues (Bilal et al. 2018) due to the renewable charac-
teristic of biofuels.
An incessant search for clean energy is certainly an
opportunity for reducing costs, using organic waste and
improving the quality of the environment. Therefore, CBP
emerges as an opportunity. The identification and use of
native microbial strains that present high cellulolytic and
alcoholic activities, fermentation in cocultivation mode
using different ethanogenic microorganisms with high cel-
lulolytic potential or the use genetic engineering as a tool to
obtain recombinant strains of microorganisms that exhibit
high production of cellulases and hemicellulases are strate-
gies for accomplishing this current approach (Hasunuma and
Kondo 2012; Jouzani and Taherzadeh 2015).
It is fundamental that the enzymatic properties of micro-
bial cellulolytic complexes are well studied to improve the
efficiency of the processes, going beyond factors such as
thermal stability and pH of the enzymes that are used. Rec-
ognizing new microbial strains that express high rates of
enzymatic activity and that have potential uses in biotech-
nological processes for the generation of biofuels and other
materials is fundamentally necessary for the viability and
technical and economic benefits of bioprocesses.
Introducing these microorganisms into biotechnological
processes, especially in the form of microbial cocultures,
which could take advantage of the specific metabolism of
each microorganism, may increase the conversion of bio-
mass into valuable bioproducts and may make these pro-
cesses viable. The production of large amounts of butyric
acid has been accomplished by cocultivation using a strain of
the genus Bacillus and Clostridium tyrotyricum by sucrose
fermentation (Dwidar et al. 2013). Cocultivation between
strains of Clostridium celerecrescens and Clostridium ace-
tobutylicum has been studied by Wang et al. (2015) under
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948
mesophilic conditions for the direct conversion of cellulose
into butanol. In that study, considerable levels of butanol
were obtained, demonstrating that the use of consolidated
bioprocesses to obtain biofuels is promising.
Enzymes produced by microorganisms can aid in the del-
ignification step of agroindustrial residue and is considered a
sustainable route for the pretreatment of biomass. Therefore,
the viability and use of cellulosic ethanol depend on the effi-
ciency and enzymatic activity, which is related to the final
value of the product (Rajak and Banerjee 2016).
For first-generation ethanol, enzymatic technology has
little influence on the final price; for example, for cellulosic
ethanol, it is estimated that 15% of the total cost of pro-
duction is linked to this technology (Ramos et al. 2016).
There are few studies related to the use of biocatalysts for
the pretreatment of biomass and its subsequent production
of biofuels, which is an area of study with great scientific
potential (Bilal et al. 2018).
The need to explore, understand and monitor the variables
that affect the bioprocesses when scaling up the processes
are also critical to enable the validation of the industrial
scale fermentation process. These challenges require further
study and present opportunities for the design of bioreac-
tors for the profitable commercialization of bioconversion
of agroindustrial waste into bioproducts (Behera and Ray
2016).
Bioconversion of residual biomass in bioproducts is also
highlighted as a process aligned with Industry 4.0, which
provides the integration of vertical and horizontal product
manufacturing processes to achieve high levels of indus-
trial performance (Dalenogare et al. 2018). Industry 4.0 has
been considered one of the main trends in production sys-
tems, with clear implications for sustainability in organiza-
tions (De Sousa Jabbour et al. 2018; Song and Wang 2016).
Therefore, technologies 4.0 will enable the automation of
the various bioprocesses linked to the production of bio-
products, at the same time that will make them efficient,
planned and optimized, contributing positively to sustain-
able development.
Considerations
A bibliometric and scientometric analyses were conducted
that considered the use of agroindustrial waste in the bio-
processing industry and confirmed a trend towards biofuels
by enzymatic conversion processes. The development of any
bioproduct effectively depends on the efficiency of the bio-
mass preparation and pretreatment stages, yield associated
with the high bioconversion rates and purification of the
bioproduct for subsequent industrial use.
There is potential for lignocellulosic residues to be used
in microbial cultures, but it is essential that the processes for
13
Archives of Microbiology (2020) 202:935–951
obtaining bioproducts by enzymatic hydrolysis evolve and
that improvements in the design of bioreactors for the viable
scale up of these processes for commercial and industrial
applications be made.
Acknowledgements  This study was financed in part by the Coorde-
nação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil
(CAPES)—Finance Code 001. We would like to thank the Ministry
of Science Technology Innovation and Comunication (MCTIC—
01.0144.00/2010), the Science and Technology Regional Park (CEP-
POB-TecnoUnisc) and Science, Technology and Economic Develop-
ment Secretary (SDECT- RS).
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