Agri-residues and agro-industrial waste substrates bioconversion by fungal cultures to biocatalyst lipase for green chemistry: A review

Huge amounts of agri-residues generated from food crops and processing are discarded in landfills, causing environmental problems. There is an urgent need to manage them with a green technological approach. Agri-residues are rich in nutrients such as proteins, lipids, sugars, minerals etc., and provide an opportunity for bioconversion into value-added products. Considering the importance of lipase as a biocatalyst for various industrial applications and its growing need for economic production, a detailed review of bioconversion of agri-residues and agro-industrial substrate for the production of lipase from fungal species from a technological perspective has been reported for the first time. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram was used for the identification and selection of articles from ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases from 2010 to 2023 (July), and 108 peer-reviewed journal articles were included based on the scope of the study. The composition of agri-residues/agro-industrial wastes, fungal species, lipase production, industrial/green chemistry applications, and the economic impact of using agri-residues on lipase costs have been discussed. Bioconversion procedure, process developments, and technology gaps required to be addressed before commercialization have also been discussed. This process expects to decrease the environmental pollution from wastes, and low-cost lipase can help in the growth of the bioeconomy.