172 Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.
5 May 2001
Biotechnology and the utilization of
biowaste as a resource for bioproduct
development
Jacobus P.H. van Wyk
There is widespread concern that increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere will ultimately lead to
climate changes. Recognizing the important role that fossil fuels have in the
economies and lifestyles of people throughout the world, it is reasonable to
ask if the global economy can be powered in ways that might have less impact
on the environment because they discharge less carbon dioxide. A way of
addressing this sensitive issue could be through the biodevelopment of
biowaste as an alternative and renewable energy resource. Landfilling and
incineration are popular ways to deal with biowaste but both cause negative
environmental effects such as the use of valuable land and production of
dangerous gases. The structural components of cells, cellulose and
hemicellulose, make biowaste very susceptible for bioproduct development
and biowaste offers biotechnology an opportunity to assist in maintaining
environmental quality.
Life is associated with waste production and the
exploitation of these materials as a renewable
resource for bioproduct development could be a
major challenge for biotechnology.
Nature of biowaste
Municipal solid waste consists of everyday items
such as product packaging, grass clippings,
furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, wastepaper,
appliances, paint and batteries. On average ~80% of
it consists of organic material, which is defined as
the biodegradable portion of household refuse,
market garbage, yard rubbish and animal and
human waste. When the amount of organic
agricultural waste, such as corn stalks, leaves and
wheat straw from wheat-processing facilities,
sawdust and other residues from wood mills, is also
considered, this component of solid waste could be a
principal resource for biodevelopment1. Materials
of organic origin are known as biomass (a term that
describes energy materials that emanate from
biological sources) and are of major importance
to sustainable development because they are
renewable as opposed to non-organic materials
and fossil carbohydrates.
Jacobus P.H. van Wyk
Dept of Pharmacology
and Therapeutics,
Methods of managing solid biowaste
Box 225, Medical When waste is not managed properly it can cause
University of Southern health and environmental risks. Currently, biowastes
Africa (MEDUNSA),
are dealt with in different ways including landfilling,
South Africa, 0204
e-mail: vanwykz@ composting, combustion, recycling and illegal
yahoo.com dumping. Landfills are engineered areas in which
http://tibtech.trends.com 0167-7799/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0167-7799(01)01601-8
waste is buried in the land with various systems and
safeguards to prevent ground water contamination,
but the waste still poses health risks because it
generates certain greenhouse gases2. In general,
landfill gases consist of five principal components,
methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen and
nitrogen. Trace compound gases, such as saturated
and unsaturated hydrocarbons, acidic hydrocarbons,
organic alcohols, aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfur
compounds and inorganic compounds, are also
released from municipal landfill sites3.
Another method of dealing with biowaste is
composting, the decomposition of such matter by
microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) to
produce a humus-like substance that can be used as
a fertilizer. This organic matter is an excellent soil
conditioner because it has been stabilized and
decomposes slowly, which means that it remains
effective over a longer period of time. A problem
that faces the composting method, however, is that
as a consequence of modernization, the composition
of waste is changing and thus pesticides and
polychlorinated bi-phenils, as well as heavy
metals, might be present in such high
concentrations that they could make compost
undesirable for land application.
Incineration is another method of managing
solid waste and is popular in countries with a severe
shortage of landfill sites4. It is described as the
controlled combustion of waste with the primary
purpose of reducing the combustible portion of it
and of recovering the available energy from the
process. This controversial process is portrayed as
the worst way of dealing with biowaste because it
destroys resources for biorecycling or composting5.
Recycling of waste proves to be an effective
management option because it does not involve the
emission of many greenhouse gases and water
pollutants. This approach saves energy, supplies
valuable raw materials to industry, stimulates the
development of green technologies, conserves
natural resources and reduces the need for new
landfill sites and incinerators.
Utilization of biowaste
Aside from the traditional methods of waste
management, biowaste has been used in the
Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.5 May 2001
production of clean energy where it replaces coal,
oil or natural gases to generate electricity through
combustion. This waste-to-energy conversion
process has been proved to be safe, environment-
friendly and reduces the incoming volume by ~90%;
the remaining ash is used as a roadbed material or
as a landfill material. By replacing fossil fuels, this
technology has the additional advantage of reducing
carbon dioxide emission and the combustion of
biowaste would also reduce sulfur dioxide emissions
over the level produced by a coal driven energy
generating plant6. This also provides a safe and
effective method for destroying organisms that
could become a serious health threat.
Biowaste and biotechnology
Environmental change on earth is as old as the
planet itself and astronomical and geological
forces have probably produced more radical
environmental changes than have been
experienced during the recent century. However,
this is the first time in human history that
mankind has altered ecosystems with such high
intensity, on such a large scale and with such rapid
speed. In environmental history, the twentieth
century qualifies as peculiar because of the
acceleration of so many processes that bring
ecological changes. Most of these processes are
not new given that waste has been generated,
crops grown and animals hunted for centuries
but in modern times more of these activities have
been undertaken than ever before. Sometimes,
differences in quantity can become differences in
quality and that has been the case with the
environmental changes in the 20th century. Such
an example is waste production, which has grown
so comprehensive and on such a large-scale
that it affects the fundamentals of global
environmental chemistry.
Environmental biotechnology is a way to deal
with these changes and can assist to restore
environmental quality. Biotechnology procedures
such as municipal sewage treatment plants and gas
filters were developed around the turn of the
previous century7 and although they proved to be
very effective, the cause of their action was unknown
at that time. The advantage of environmental
biotechnology methods comes from evolution
resulting in biological systems that are more efficient
than other methods, produce less secondary
waste and use less energy. Biotechnology has a key
role in removing organic solids from wastewater and
is also used to control the remaining contaminants,
such as phosphorous and nitrogen from fertilizers
that are discharged into rivers where these
chemicals disrupt the delicate ecological balance8.
Nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen can
cause excessive plant and algae growth that can
overgrow aquatic plants and produce toxins that are
poisonous to fish and livestock. During the past few
http://tibtech.trends.com
173
years, consumers and environmentalists have
become increasingly concerned about the
environment and resource depletion, consequently
the demand for bioproducts has increased9–11.
Biotechnology has been applied in the waste
management of the mining industry and sewage
plants and its effectiveness in dealing with toxic
chemicals and oil spills has been proven.
Nevertheless, despite its great potential, it has
made a relatively small contribution to the
biorecycling of biowaste. The treatment of
aqueous and solid wastes of industrial,
agricultural and domestic origin, offers several
opportunities to apply a wide range of
biotechnology techniques such as bioconversion,
biouagmentation, phytoremediation,
biostimulation and biodestruction. The efficiency
of these methods is based on the capacity of
organisms to degrade organic materials or to absorb
hazardous substances. Bacteria12, microalgae13,
fungi14 and yeasts15 have already been shown to
degrade biowastes to some extent, and the fixed
costs of bioconversion can be significantly lower
than methods such as incineration16. Because the
cost involved with pollution control, waste
treatment and disposal are rising faster than the
growth of industrial products, waste biotechnology
needs to be applied in order to protect the
environment by creating valuable bioproducts
from biowastes.
Waste cellulose as a resource for bioproducts
At the turn of the 20th century, many industrial
materials, dyes, inks, paints, medicines, clothing,
synthetic fibers and plastics were made from trees,
vegetables or crops. By 1970 however, materials
produced from petroleum by-products have largely
replaced these materials and the use of plant-based
materials has further decreased from ~35% in 1925
to <16% in 1989 (Ref. 17). Exploitation of
phytochemicals has diminished because of the
relative ease and economy of producing identical
commodities from petrochemicals. The consumer-
products industry has thus displaced carbohydrates
with hydrocarbons as molecular building blocks of
the industrial economy. Given that the core of solid
waste management relates to the absence of
adequate technologies18, it is important to realize
that many types of waste are actually misplaced
assets that must be seen as potential economic
assets, rather than as something that needs to be
removed using any means available. Biowaste
conversion is a way of changing waste into
bioproducts and will have to be used more in the
future as non-renewable resources, primarily fossil
fuels, are depleted.
Development of biowaste
Lignocellulosic biomass represents the primary
fraction of municipal solid waste (Table 1; Fig. 1)
174 Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.5 May 2001
Table 1. Average composition of municipal solid
waste reflecting the contribution of waste cellulose
materials to it with used paper materials the major
section of biowaste
Constituent Weight (%)
Paper and paper products 37.8
Food waste 14.2
Yards waste 14.6
Wood wastes 3.0
Total: Cellulose waste 69.6
Plastic 4.6
Rubber and leather 2.2
Textiles 3.3
Glass and ceramics 9.0
Metals 8.2
Miscellaneous 3.1
Total 100
with cellulose (35–50%) its major structural
component of it19. The next largest structural
fraction is hemicellulose20 (20–35%) with lignin21,
the third largest fraction (15–25%). Structural
biopolymers that could be used as starting materials
for a bioconversion process are shown in Table 2.
Cellulose
Cellulose is a long chain of glucose molecules,
linked to one another primarily by β(1→4)glycosidic
bonds; the simplicity of the cellulose structure
means that it can be degraded. The use of
biowaste as a raw material can broaden the
options of the chemical industry giving it more
flexibility and a broader application range22
because it would (1) rely on more-biodegradable
products and processes that create less pollution
and generally have fewer harmful environmental
impacts; (2) develop less expensive products;
(3) develop novel products not available from
petroleum sources; (4) use less expensive raw
materials and (5) reduce the dependence on fossil
fuels. To develop the carbohydrate potential of
biowaste materials, its cellulose content has to be
converted into sugars such as glucose (Fig. 2)
that can be used as starting compounds in the
biosynthesis of many bioproducts (Fig. 3). This
conversion process could either be acid or enzyme
catalyzed; the concentrated acid process for
producing sugars was reported as early as 1883
(Ref. 23). This treatment disrupts the hydrogen
bonding between cellulose chains and once it has
been decrystallized it becomes extremely
susceptible to hydrolysis. Diluted acid was
introduced in the process as a pretreatment agent
to remove the hemicellulose content of biomass
before decrystallization and hydrolysis of the
cellulose fraction24.
To make the process economically feasible, issues
such as recycling of the dilute and concentrated acids
were researched. The recent results suggest that a
decrystallization step performed by adding 70–77%
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Fig. 1. Biowaste as a major component of municipal solid waste.
sulfuric acid to biomass that has been dried to 10%
moisture is needed. Acid at a ratio of 1.25:1
(acid:cellulose+hemicellulose) is added, and the
temperature reduced to less than 50°C. This is
followed by diluting the acid (20–30%) and heating
the mixture to 100°C for an hour to release the
produced sugars, which can be separated from the
acid on a chromatographic column25. The
concentrated sulfuric acid process has been
commercialized in the past26, however, these
processes were only successful during times of
national crises, when economic competitiveness
of ethanol production could be ignored.
Conventional wisdom suggests that these processes
cannot be economical because of the high volumes of
acid required27. Improvements in acid–sugar
separation and recovery have opened the door for
commercial applications and the current economics
of this opportunity are driven by the availability
of a cheap feedstock that usually pose a disposal
or waste problem28.
Enzymatic hydrolysis of waste cellulose can be
performed using cellulase, a multi-component
system produced by bacteria29 and fungi30, which
is highly specific with no by-product formation.
Enzymatic reactions take place at mild conditions
and achieve high yields with relatively low levels of
catalysts. Enzymes have the further benefit in that
they are naturally occurring compounds that are
biodegradable, environmentally benign and can be
recycled for multiple catalyzes. The application of
enzymes in industrial processes, however, has the
disadvantage that they often call on properties that
are not found in enzymes isolated from their natural
environment. These properties include high overall
stability under process conditions (high temperature,
organic solvents, detergents, oxidants and optimum
catalytic conditions) and high catalytic activity to
non-natural substrates31,32.
Hemicellulose and lignin
Hemicelluloses are branched polymers of xylose,
arabinose, galactose, mannose and glucose. These
biopolymers bind bundles of cellulose fibrils to form
microfibrils, which enhance the stability of the cell
 Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.5 May 2001 175

Table 2. The relative content (%) of biopolymers in biowaste of cellulose with lignin. A major obstacle in the
Lignocellulosic biomass (%) bioconversion process is the crystalline nature
Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin of cellulose but to make it more susceptible for
enzymatic-catalyzed degradation it can be
Agricultural residues 38 32 17
exposed to various pretreatments, to open up the
Sorted municipal solid waste 45 9 10 cellulose structure and make it more susceptible
Underutilized hardwood 50 23 22 to cellulase action. Several biowaste pretreatments,
Herbaceous energy crops 45 30 15 including acid-catalyzed steam explosion40,
carbon dioxide explosion41 and dilute acid
pretreatment42 have been investigated with
wall (Fig. 4). They also cross-link with lignin, varying degrees of success. Biowaste has also been
creating a complex web of bonds that provide exposed to various enzymatic treatments such as
structural strength but also challenge microbial sequential cellulase treatment43, mixtures of
degradation33,34. Lignin is a complex polymer of cellulases from different origins44,45 and the
phenylpropane units, which are cross-linked to each treatment of waste cellulose with different
other with a variety of different chemical bonds. amounts of cellulase46.
This complexity has thus far proven to be as resistant
to detailed biochemical characterization as it is to Bioethanol and other biodegradeable products
microbial degradation. Some organisms, Energy dependence and waste production are two
particularly the white-rot fungi35 have developed characteristics of any system and a typical example
the necessary enzymes to break lignin apart. is the transportation system, in which fuels account
Actinomycetes can also decompose lignin but for a significant fraction of air pollution. The use
degrade <20% of the total lignin present36,37. Lignin of fossil fuels raises concerns about global climate
degradation is primarily an aerobic process, and in changes and to address this issue the production of
an anaerobic environment lignin can persist for ethanol from biowaste can improve energy security
very long periods38. Because lignin is the most and decrease pollution. Ethanol is an excellent
recalcitrant component of the plant cell wall, its transportation fuel and blends of it have benefits,
presence lowers the bioavailability of cellulose such as reduced gasoline use, thus lowering the need
and hemicellulose for enzymatic penetration for fossil fuels. It also improves the performance of
and activity39. an ethanol–gasoline blend and ethanol provides
oxygen for the fuel resulting in a more complete
Pretreatment of cellulose and methods of combustion with a low atmospheric photochemical
increasing enzymatic catalyzed saccharification reactivity. Even though carbon dioxide is released
To effect the synthesis of bioproducts, the during the fermentation of sugars to form ethanol
bioconversion of cellulose into glucose needs and the burning of ethanol as a fuel, the carbon
to be optimized, a process hampered by several dioxide is reutilized to grow new biomass replacing
factors such as the heterogeneous nature of the that harvested for ethanol production. As a result,
reaction, product inhibition and the interaction no excess carbon dioxide accumulates in the
atmosphere, hence reducing the potential global
climate changes.
The ability of the glucose originated from
CH2OH CH2OH CH2OH CH2OH biowaste to be fermented by yeasts into bioethanol
O O O O would not only address the issue of renewable
H H H H
O H H H H
OH H O OH H O OH H O OH H O energy but could also limit biowaste. Few
H H H H approaches have been examined for the hydrolysis
H OH H OH H OH H OH of waste cellulose into glucose and the successive
Cellulose fermentation into bioethanol and other bioproducts
(Fig. 3). During separate hydrolysis and
Hydrolysis of cellulose fermentation, cellulase is added to pretreated
biowaste resulting in the formation of glucose from
the cellulose fraction with added yeast to ferment
CH2OH CH2OH CH2OH
glucose into ethanol47,48. A second and more popular
O O O
H H H H OH cellulose conversion process – direct microbial
H H O H
OH H + OH H OH H conversion – is when the microorganisms
HO OH HO OH H
simultaneously produce cellulase, hydrolyze
H OH H OH H OH cellulose and ferment glucose into ethanol49 while
Glucose Cellobiose at the same time, co-fermentation converts the
TRENDS in Biotechnology hemicellulose sugars into bioethanol50. Over the
years there have been substantial advances in
Fig. 2. Acid and cellulase catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose into sugars. enzyme-based technology for ethanol production.

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176 Review TRENDS in Biotechnology Vol.19 No.5 May 2001

Fig. 3. Development of
biowaste as a resource for Biowaste
bioproduct synthesis.

Cellulose component
Physical and
chemical pretreatment
Cellulase and acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose

Sugars (Glucose) Sugar processing Chemical processing Chemicals

Carbon dioxide products Dry ice

Fermentation Carbon dioxide
Algae culture Pharmaceuticals (B-carotene)

Biodegradable and biocompatible Packaging materials

Lactic acid
polylactide products Prosthetic materials

Ethanol Ethanol Ethanol

Ethanol
distillation dehydration fuel

Single cell protein

Liquid waste Stillage
processing Chemicals

Irrigation Distillers solids

Anaerobic fermentation Methane Electricity

TRENDS in Biotechnology

The decrease in the cost of the ethanol produced negative perception of biotechnology with the
from lignocellulosic biomass from US$ 0.95 l−1 in general public. Some of the potentially beneficial
1980 to an estimated US$ 0.32 l−1 in 1993 uses of biotechnology, which might touch the
(Refs 51, 52) shows the progress made with this lives of the majority of people, are environmental
technology and attempts to make the process biotechnology, fundamentally rooted in waste
more cost-effective are still in progress53 because due to remediation of polluted land and the
the current production cost is still in the range treatment of waste from human activities.
of US$ 0.32 l–1. Composting and the anaerobic digestion of
municipal solid waste might not share the glamour
Conclusion of genetic engineering but bioproduct development
Biotechnology has never enjoyed the present would influence the activities of the food,
level of attention caused by issues such as cloning pharmaceutical, cosmetic and petroleum sectors
and genetic modifications, which leave a mostly more in the future as the pressure on waste
management and biodevelopment increases.
Fig. 4. Fibers, composed
of cellulose, As with any development the sustainable re-use
hemicellulose and lignin, of biowaste resources would not be without
form a structural difficulties, but it would open up the opportunity
component of biowaste
and can undergo
for technological developments. The economic
cellulase, as well as acid environment would need to foster the type of
catalyzed hydrolysis into conditions in which the emergent industry can
fermentable sugars. The
thrive. Biowaste development cannot simply be
scale bar represents 5 µm.
about maximizing the diversion of biodegradable
material from entering landfill, it should also
maximize the re-integration of these bioproducts
back into the chain of utility ensuring a
sustainable growth.

http://tibtech.trends.com
 Review
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