Conversion of inulin-rich raw plant biomass to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA): Progress and challenge towards biorenewable plastics

The current commercial plastic manufactures have been produced using petroleum-based resource. However, due to concerns over the resource depletion and the environmental sustainability, bioresource-based manufacturing processes have been developed to cope against these concerns. Bioresource-derived 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) can be utilized as a building block material for plastic manufactures. To date, numerous technologies have been developed for the production of FDCA using various types of bio-based feedstocks such as hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), 6-C sugars, and polysaccharides. The commercial companies produce FDCA using HMF-based production processes due to their high production efficiency, but the high price of HMF is a problem bottleneck. Our review affords important information on breakthrough approaches for the cost-efficient and sustainable production of FDCA using raw plant feedstocks rich in inulin. These approaches include bioprocessing technology based on the direct use of raw plant feedstocks and biomodification of the target plant sources. For the former, an ionic liquid-based processing system is proposed for efficient pretreatment of raw plant feedstocks. For the latter, the genes encoding the key enzymes; sucrose:sucrose 1-fructoyltransferase (1-SST), fructan:fructan 1-fryuctosyltransferase (1-FFT), fructan 1-exohydrolase (1-FEH), and microbe-derived endoinulinase, are introduced for biomodification conducive to facilitating bioprocess and improving inulin content. These approaches would contribute to cost-efficiently and sustainably producing bio-based FDCA.