Xylooligosaccharides: A Bibliometric Analysis and Current Advances of This Bioactive Food Chemical as a Potential Product in Biorefineries' Portfolios.

Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are nondigestible compounds of great interest for food and pharmaceutical industries due to their beneficial prebiotic, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antitumor properties. The market size of XOS is increasing significantly, which makes its production from lignocellulosic biomass an interesting approach to the valorization of the hemicellulose fraction of biomass, which is currently underused. This review comprehensively discusses XOS production from lignocellulosic biomass, aiming at its application in integrated biorefineries. A bibliometric analysis is carried out highlighting the main players in the field. XOS production yields after different biomass pretreatment methods are critically discussed using Microsoft PowerBI® (2.92.706.0) software, which involves screening important trends for decision-making. Enzymatic hydrolysis and the major XOS purification strategies are also explored. Finally, the integration of XOS production into biorefineries, with special attention to economic and environmental aspects, is assessed, providing important information for the implementation of biorefineries containing XOS in their portfolio.

Defining research & development process targets through retro-techno-economic analysis: The sugarcane biorefinery case.

A new approach is reported for techno-economic analysis of lignocellulosic ethanol production. With this methodology, general targets for key process variables can be draw, a valuable feedback for Research & Development teams. An integrated first- and second-generation ethanol from sugarcane biorefinery is presented as a case study for the methodology, with the biomass pretreated by liquid hot water, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose fraction. The hemicellulose fraction may be either fermented or biodigested. The methodology was able to identify the main variables that affect the process global economic performance: enzyme load in the cellulose hydrolysis reactor, cellulose-to-glucose, and xylose-to-ethanol yields. Windows of feasible operation are the graphical output of the methodology, outlining regions to be further explored experimentally. One example of quantitative result is that the maximum feasible enzyme load was 11.3 FPU/gcellulose when xylose is fermented to ethanol and 7.7 FPU/gcellulose when xylose is biodigested.