Lopes Ferreira Nicolas
IFP, Département de Biotechnologie, 1 et 4 avenue de Bois-Préau, 92852 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex, France.
J Soc Biol. 2008;202(3):191-9. doi: 10.1051/jbio:2008021. Epub 2008 Nov 4.
Plants, which are one of major groups of life forms, are constituted of an amazing number of molecules such as sugars, proteins, phenolic compounds etc. These molecules display multiple and complementary properties involved in various compartments of plants (structure, storage, biological activity etc.). The first uses of plants in industry were for food and feed, paper manufacturing or combustion. In the coming decades, these renewable biological materials will be the basis of a new concept: the "biorefiner" i.e. the chemical conversion of the whole plant to various products and uses. This concept, born in the 90ies, is analogous to today's petroleum refinery, which produces multiple fuels and derivative products from petroleum. Agriculture generates lots of co-products which were most often wasted. The rational use of these wasted products, which can be considered as valuable renewable materials, is now economically interesting and will contribute to the reduction of greenhouse has emissions by partially substituting for fossil fuels. Such substructures from biological waste products and transforming them into biofuels and new industrial products named "bioproducts". These compounds, such as bioplastics or biosurfactants, can replace equivalent petroleum derivatives. Towards that goal, lots of filamentous fungi, growing on a broad range of vegetable species, are able to produce enzymes adapted to the modification of these type of substrates. The best example, at least the more industrially developed to date, is the second generation biofuel technology using cellulose as a raw material. The process includes an enzymatic hydrolysis step which requires cellulases secreted from Trichoderma fungal species. This industrial development of a renewable energy will contribute to the diversification of energy sources used to transport and to the development of green chemistry which will partially substitute petrochemicals.
植物是主要生命形式之一，由大量令人惊叹的分子构成，如糖类、蛋白质、酚类化合物等。这些分子在植物的各个部分（结构、储存、生物活性等）展现出多种互补特性。植物在工业上的最初用途是用于食品、饲料、造纸或燃烧。在未来几十年，这些可再生生物材料将成为一个新概念的基础：即“生物精炼厂”，也就是将整个植物化学转化为各种产品并加以利用。这个概念诞生于20世纪90年代，类似于如今的石油精炼厂，后者从石油中生产多种燃料和衍生产品。农业产生大量副产品，而这些副产品大多被浪费了。合理利用这些可被视为有价值可再生材料的废弃产品，如今在经济上颇具吸引力，并且通过部分替代化石燃料，将有助于减少温室气体排放。要从生物废弃物中提取此类亚结构并将其转化为生物燃料和名为“生物产品”的新型工业产品。这些化合物，如生物塑料或生物表面活性剂，可以替代等效的石油衍生物。为实现这一目标，许多生长在多种蔬菜物种上的丝状真菌能够产生适合修饰这类底物的酶。最典型的例子，至少是迄今为止在工业上发展得较为成熟的例子，是以纤维素为原料的第二代生物燃料技术。该过程包括一个酶促水解步骤，这需要木霉属真菌分泌的纤维素酶。这种可再生能源的工业发展将有助于运输所用能源的多样化，并推动绿色化学的发展，绿色化学将部分替代石化产品。
