Description of the innovation
Production of molecules of interest from non-food biomass

Conventional bioethanol production processes combine the use of particularly costly enzymes to hydrolyze biomass into simple sugars, and a micro-organism to ferment these sugars. The deinococci micro-organism is capable of performing both operations in a single step, thanks to its cellulolytic and xylanolytic activity. This makes it possible to envisage an all-in-one process for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material (cellulose/hemicellulose) into simple sugars, hexoses C₆ and pentoses C₅ , the latter being simultaneously co-assimilated by the bacterium and transformed into other high-value-added chemical compounds. The yield in terms of biomass utilization is optimized.

In addition to its metabolic capacities, deinococcus bacteria have three major attractions for industrial use:

• it is extremely resistant to a large number of inhibitors,...