| 1. |
Min Zhang, Yukihiro Tashiro, Natsumi Ishida, Kenji Sakai, Application of autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion as a sustainable recycling process of organic liquid waste: Recent advances and prospects, Science of the Total Environment, doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154187, 828, 154187, 2022.07. |
| 2. |
Pramod Poudel, Yukihiro Tashiro, Kenji Sakai, New application of Bacillus strains for optically pure L-lactic acid production
General overview and future prospects, Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry, 10.1080/09168451.2015.1095069, 2016.04, Members of the genus Bacillus are considered to be both, among the best studied and most commonly used bacteria as well as the most still unexplored and the most wide-applicable potent bacteria because novel Bacillus strains are continuously being isolated and used in various areas. Production of optically pure L-lactic acid (L-LA), a feedstock for bioplastic synthesis, from renewable resources has recently attracted attention as a valuable application of Bacillus strains. L-LA fermentation by other producers, including lactic acid bacteria and Rhizopus strains (fungi) has already been addressed in several reviews. However, despite the advantages of L-LA fermentation by Bacillus strains, including its high growth rate, utilization of various carbon sources, tolerance to high temperature, and growth in simple nutritional conditions, it has not been reviewed. This review article discusses new findings on LA-producing Bacillus strains and compares them to other producers. The future prospects for LA-producing Bacillus strains are also discussed.. |
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Study on application of designed biomass and establishment of highly efficient process for biofuel production in the field of new biochemical engineering. |
| 4. |
Jin Zheng, Yukihiro Tashiro, Qunhui Wang, Kenji Sonomoto, Recent advances to improve fermentative butanol production
Genetic engineering and fermentation technology, Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 10.1016/j.jbiosc.2014.05.023, 第119巻, 第1号, pp.1–9, 2015.01, Butanol has recently attracted attention as an alternative biofuel because of its various advantages over other biofuels. Many researchers have focused on butanol fermentation with renewable and sustainable resources, especially lignocellulosic materials, which has provided significant progress in butanol fermentation. However, there are still some drawbacks in butanol fermentation in terms of low butanol concentration and productivity, high cost of feedstock and product inhibition, which makes butanol fermentation less competitive than the production of other biofuels. These hurdles are being resolved in several ways. Genetic engineering is now available for improving butanol yield and butanol ratio through overexpression, knock out/down, and insertion of genes encoding key enzymes in the metabolic pathway of butanol fermentation. In addition, there are also many strategies to improve fermentation technology, such as multi-stage continuous fermentation, continuous fermentation integrated with immobilization and cell recycling, and the inclusion of additional organic acids or electron carriers to change metabolic flux. This review focuses on the most recent advances in butanol fermentation especially from the perspectives of genetic engineering and fermentation technology.. |
| 5. |
Ying Wang, Yukihiro Tashiro, Kenji Sonomoto, Fermentative production of lactic acid from renewable materials
Recent achievements, prospects, and limits, Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 10.1016/j.jbiosc.2014.06.003, 第119巻, 第1号, pp.10–18, 2015.01, The development and implementation of renewable materials for the production of versatile chemical resources have gained considerable attention recently, as this offers an alternative to the environmental problems caused by the petroleum industry and the limited supply of fossil resources. Therefore, the concept of utilizing biomass or wastes from agricultural and industrial residues to produce useful chemical products has been widely accepted. Lactic acid plays an important role due to its versatile application in the food, medical, and cosmetics industries and as a potential raw material for the manufacture of biodegradable plastics. Currently, the fermentative production of optically pure lactic acid has increased because of the prospects of environmental friendliness and cost-effectiveness. In order to produce lactic acid with high yield and optical purity, many studies focus on wild microorganisms and metabolically engineered strains. This article reviews the most recent advances in the biotechnological production of lactic acid mainly by lactic acid bacteria, and discusses the feasibility and potential of various processes.. |
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Mohamed Ali Sayed Mohamed Abdelrahman, Yukihiro Tashiro, Kenji Sonomoto, Recent advances in lactic acid production by microbial fermentation processes, Biotechnology Advances, 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2013.04.002, 第31巻, 第6巻, pp. 877–902, 2013.11, Fermentative production of optically pure lactic acid has roused interest among researchers in recent years due to its high potential for applications in a wide range of fields. More specifically, the sharp increase in manufacturing of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) materials, green alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics, has significantly increased the global interest in lactic acid production. However, higher production costs have hindered the large-scale application of PLA because of the high price of lactic acid. Therefore, reduction of lactic acid production cost through utilization of inexpensive substrates and improvement of lactic acid production and productivity has become an important goal. Various methods have been employed for enhanced lactic acid production, including several bioprocess techniques facilitated by wild-type and/or engineered microbes. In this review, we will discuss lactic acid producers with relation to their fermentation characteristics and metabolism. Inexpensive fermentative substrates, such as dairy products, food and agro-industrial wastes, glycerol, and algal biomass alternatives to costly pure sugars and food crops are introduced. The operational modes and fermentation methods that have been recently reported to improve lactic acid production in terms of concentrations, yields, and productivities are summarized and compared. High cell density fermentation through immobilization and cell-recycling techniques are also addressed. Finally, advances in recovery processes and concluding remarks on the future outlook of lactic acid production are presented.. |
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Yukihiro Tashiro, Tsuyoshi Yoshida, Takuya Noguchi, Kenji Sonomoto, Recent advances and future prospects for increased butanol production by acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation, Engineering in Life Sciences, 10.1002/elsc.201200128, 第13巻, 第5号, pp. 432–445 , 2013.09, Presently, several researchers are increasingly focusing on producing butanol as the next-generation fuel by acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation. Butanol has many superior characteristics compared to other biofuels, such as ethanol. However, its production by ABE fermentation faces the challenges of low productivity and yield because of product inhibition and heterofermentation, respectively, and thereby, high costs. Until date, molecular biological techniques and fermentation engineering methods have been applied for high butanol production. Although glucose remains the substrate of choice since traditional research, it is now necessary to substitute glucose derived from edible starch to other substrates from low-cost feedstock, such as agricultural residue. In addition, ABE-producing clostridia cannot directly produce butanol from lignocelluloses. Therefore, recent research is focusing on pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of the complex molecules derived from agricultural residue for use as feedstock in butanol production. This article reviews traditional research, including the metabolism patterns and characteristics of ABE-producing clostridia. Furthermore, this article describes developments in ABE fermentation with respect to the establishment of highly efficient butanol production processes, such as batch, fed-batch, and continuous cultures, with the introduction of butanol removal, as well as butanol production from lignocellulosic biomasses or alternative substrates to sugars.. |
| 8. |
Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, Yukihiro Tashiro, Kenji Sonomoto, Lactic Acid Production from Lignocellulose-Derived Sugars using Lactic Acid Bacteria: Overview and Limits, Journal of Biotechnology, 第156巻, 第4号, pp. 286–301 (doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2011.06.017), 2011.12. |
