Consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulosic wastes in Northwest China for D-glucaric acid production by an artificial microbial consortium

D-glucaric acid is a platform chemical of great importance and the consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of lignocellulose by the microbial consortium of Trichoderma reesei C10 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae LGA-1C3S2 features prospects in biomanufacturing it. Here we compared some representative lignocelluloses in Northwest China including corn stover, wheat straw and switchgrass, and the leading pretreatments including steam explosion, subcritical water pretreatment, sodium hydroxide pretreatment, aqueous ammonia pretreatment, lime pretreatment, and diluted sulfuric acid pretreatment. It was found that sodium hydroxide pretreated switchgrass (SHPSG) was the best substrate for D-glucaric acid production, resulting in the highest D-glucaric acid titers, 11.69 ± 0.73 g/L in shake flask and 15.71 ± 0.80 g/L in 10L airlift fermenter, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest D-glucaric acid production titer from lignocellulosic biomass. This work offers a paradigm of producing low-cost D-glucaric acid for low-carbon polyethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate (PEF) and a reference on developing biorefinery in Northwest China.