Factors affecting the competitiveness of bacterial fermentation

Sustainable production of chemicals and materials from renewable non-food biomass using biorefineries has become increasingly important in an effort toward the vision of ‘net zero carbon’ that has recently been pledged by countries around the world. Systems metabolic engineering has allowed the efficient development of microbial strains overproducing an increasing number of chemicals and materials, some of which have been translated to industrial-scale production. Fermentation is one of the key processes determining the overall economics of bioprocesses, but has recently been attracting less research attention. In this Review, we revisit and discuss factors affecting the competitiveness of bacterial fermentation in connection to strain development by systems metabolic engineering. Future perspectives for developing efficient fermentation processes are also discussed. Biorefinery has become increasingly important to achieve the vision of ‘net zero carbon’.Systems metabolic engineering allows the efficient development of microbial strains for chemicals production.For the bio-based production of chemicals, fermentation performance is the key to the success.Performance metrics, carbon sources, fermentation media, fermentation mode, substrate feeding, fermentation scale-up, and downstream process are important factors to consider.Effective data mining, automation at varied scales, and coherent strategies for upstream, midstream, and downstream processes are needed for further advancing the fermentation processes.