Trichoderma in Bioenergy Research: An Overview

Development of sustainable energy systems and biomaterials based on renewable biomass feedstocks (biomass to biorefinery) is a global effort nowadays. Currently biomass is considered as the best material for bioethanol production. It is a renewable resource unlike the fossil fuels in use today. Fungi are one of the main producers of a variety of enzymes with the ability to degrade biomass, including cellulases and hemicellulases. These enzymes degrade lignocellulosic biomass to convert complex carbohydrates into simple sugars and important value added co-/by products. Trichoderma is one of the most efficient biomass-degrading fungi, and its enzymatic system is also one of the most studied. This filamentous fungus is an ideal model organism for producing a number of biomolecules along with production of many beneficial enzymes widely used in biofuels and biorefinery industries. Biotechnological applications of Trichoderma species are vast in several industries where enzymatic expression systems and production of secretary proteins are widely exploited. Thus there exists a strong demand for research on Trichoderma especially on conversion technology in bioenergy research. This chapter will present an overview on applications of Trichoderma in the bioenergy sector.