(Hyper)thermophilic biocatalysts for second generation biorefineries

In bioeconomy, the development of next generation biorefineries, utilizing energy crops and waste materials, are considered one of the most promising actions toward the sustainable production of fuel and the building blocks for chemicals and polymers with a global market in 2016 of $466.6 billion and a compounded average growth rate of 8.9% between 2016-2021. This complex process is far from being optimized and the application of novel carbohydrate active enzymes justify great expectations. Here we briefly summarise how, for to the advances in (meta)genomics, glycoside hydrolases from (hyper)thermophilic organisms, thanks to their intrinsic stability, can significantly improve lignocellulosic degradation in second generation biorefineries.