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Three-dimensional (3D) printing, known as revolutionary and disruptive innovation in manufacturing technology, supports great opportunities to rapidly construct a wide range of tailored object geometries. Cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin as the three most common natural polymers and main components of plant resources, possess great economical potential for bio-based products due to their attractive advantages. The integration of 3D printing technology involved with cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin as the major bio-based feedstock for high-performance 3D printed products has received great concern in the R&D areas. In this review, the aim is to shed light on a cutting-edge review on the most recent progress based on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, as well as their derivatives as multi-components of bio-feedstock for 3D printing, in which the applications, roles and functions of the plant-derived biomass for 3D printing are also highlighted. The challenges and perspectives for future work are provided, to underscore critical issues and opportunities., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aiming for the complete utilization of bamboo biomass, an integrated process which combines ethanol production with the recovery of silica and lignin was proposed. To reduce chemical charge required for the fractionation of silica and lignin from bamboo and improve the digestibility of the obtained substrate, a sequentially two-stage pretreatment process of autohydrolysis and alkaline extraction was carried out. From the view of enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis and recovery of silica and lignin, a two-stage treatment of autohydrolysis at 180°C for 90min followed by alkaline extraction at 100°C with 6% NaOH (based on pretreated chips) for 120min was optimized. About 93.7% of original silica and 75.7% of original lignin could be recovered from bamboo. Enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of carbohydrates showed that an overall sugar yield of 88.6% of original sugar content and an ethanol recovery of 0.467g/g sugar were achieved based on the proposed scheme., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dilute acid pre-extraction enhanced the mechanically refined poplar pulp substrates' enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency obviously. The results showed that the surface lignin distribution was changed significantly in residual wood chips and pulp substrates, and the surface lignin distribution showed important impact on the following enzymatic hydrolysis. Acid pre-extraction can lead to a redistribution of lignin in fiber cell walls, i.e., the lignin was degraded and migrated to fiber surface in the form of re-deposited lignin and pseudo-lignin. However, higher pre-extraction intensity was not desired due to the formation of redeposited lignin and pseudo-lignin. This study will help to reach a deeper understanding on the lignin distribution in the view of molecular and ultrastructure, and promote the development of a cost-efficient pretreatment strategy for biomass processing., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This work is aimed at investigating the influence of changes in the content of hemicelluloses of the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood on the subsequent alkali impregnation for chemi-mechanical pulping (CMP). An alkali impregnation process was conducted using the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood with different content of hemicelluloses as raw materials. The results showed that both the amount of NaOH consumption and swelling degree of poplar sapwood increased with the removal of hemicelluloses, thus enhancing the alkali impregnation effectiveness. The hemicelluloses removal can also shorten the alkali impregnation time for the autohydrolyzed poplar sapwood to achieve the similar impregnation effectiveness of unautohydrolyzed poplar sapwood. All of these can be attributed to the fact that the hemicelluloses removal would result in the exposure of more free hydroxyl groups on the cellulose and an increase in the porosity of the fiber cell walls., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of organosolv and hydrotropic pretreatments on improving enzymatic hydrolysis of eucalyptus. The chemical composition of the fiber surface was analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to determine the surface characteristics of pretreated eucalyptus. Other than the significant decrease of surface coverage by lignin, hydrotropic pretreatment was more effective in removing the lignin and xylose from fiber cell walls than organosolv pretreatment. The restriction of acetyl and phenolic groups in pretreated substrates was typically eliminated by hydrotropic pretreatments. Moreover, fiber structure and morphology after pretreatments were more suitable for enzymatic hydrolysis. Cellulase adsorption capacity was notably improved by hydrotropic pretreatment, which indicating the better enzyme accessibility of cellulose in pretreated substrates. Eventually, higher glucose yield was obtained with hydrotropic pretreatment. In addition, the precipitated lignin as an important by-product of pretreatments was characterized by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) also., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pyrolysis was demonstrated to investigate the thermal decomposition characteristics and potential of lignin-rich cotton by-products cotton exocarp (CE) and spent mushroom substrate consisted of cotton by-products (MSC) for biorefineries. The chemical component and structure alteration of CE and MSC was found to affect their thermochemical behaviors. The bio-oil yield from CE was 58.13wt% while the maximum yield from MSC was 45.01% at 600°C. The phenolic compounds obtained from CE and MSC were 33.9% and 39.2%, respectively. The yield of acetic acid from MSC between 400 and 600°C was about 30-38% lower than that from CE, which suggests the high quality of bio-oil was obtained. Biochar from MSC via slow pyrolysis had a high mass yield (44.38wt%) with well-developed pore structure., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A feasible approach was developed to produce furfural from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts as the solid acid catalyst in a new biphasic system with dichloromethane (DCM) as the organic phase and the concentrated pre-hydrolysis liquor (CPHL) containing NaCl as the aqueous phase. The biochar catalyst possessing many acidity groups (SO3H, COOH and phenolic OH groups) was prepared by the carbonization and sulfonation process of the corncob hydrolyzed residue. The influence of the catalytic condition on furfural yield and selectivity was comparatively studied. It was found that 81.14% furfural yield and 83.0% furfural selectivity were obtained from CPHL containing 5wt% xylose using this biochar catalyst in the CPHL-NaCl/DCM biphasic system at 170°C for 60min. In addition, with the regeneration process, this catalyst displayed the high performance and excellent recyclability., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Herein, the oxidative ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment for overcoming recalcitrance of lignocellulose with selective delignification was investigated, and the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis was evaluated. IL pretreatment incorporating oxygen delignification could enhance lignin extraction with high selectivity at low carbohydrate loss. The dual-action of oxidative decomposition and dissolution by 1-butyl-3-methlimidazolium chloride (BmimCl) on biomass were synergistically acted, accounting for efficient recalcitrance removal. In addition, the mild oxidative IL treatment only slightly converted crystalline cellulose into amorphous structure, and the extensive extraction of the amorphous lignin and carbohydrate resulted to the expose of cellulose with high susceptibility. Correspondingly, the enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated lignocellulose was greatly enhanced. The oxidative IL treatment at mild conditions, collaborating BmimCl treatment with oxygen delignification is a promising and effective system for overcoming the robust structure of lignocellulose., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this work was to study the impact of shortening kraft pulping (KP) process integrated with extended oxygen delignification (OD) on the biorefinery process performance of eucalyptus. Data showed that using kraft pulps with high kappa number could improve the delignification efficiency of OD, reduce hexenuronic acid formation in kraft pulps. Pulp viscosity for a target kappa number of ∼10 was comparable to that obtained from conventional KP and OD process. The energy and alkali consumption in the integrated biorefinery process could be optimized when using a KP pulp with kappa number of ∼27. The process could minimize the overall methanol formation, but greater amounts of carbonate and oxalate were formed. The information from this study will be helpful to the future implementation of short-time KP integrated with extended OD process in actual pulp mill applications for biorefinery, aiming at further improvement in the biorefinery effectiveness of hardwood., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Sodium lignosulfonate (SXSL) and long-chain fatty alcohols (LFAs) could enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan, and the compound of SXSL and LFAs have synergies on the enzymatic hydrolysis. SXSL shows a strong enhancement in buffer pH range from 4.0 to 6.0. The enhancement increased with the SXSL dosage and the xylanase loading. The cellulose and lignin in corncob substrate could not only adsorb xylanase nonproductively, but also seriously reduce the accessibility of xylanase on xylan to impede the enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan. Cellulase could break the plant cell wall structure of corncob and make additives work better. The xylose yield of corncob at 72h increased from 59.4% to 73.7% by adding the compound of 5g/L SXSL and 0.01% (v/v) n-decanol, which was higher than that without cellulase and additives by 30.7%. Meanwhile, the glucose yield at 72h of corncob increased from 45.8% to 62.3%., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, mild acid hydrolysis using γ-valerolactone (GVL)/water system integrated with enzymatic hydrolysis was carried out for the enhancement of enzymatic saccharification efficiency. The quantitative analysis of soluble carbohydrates and structural characterizations of solid residues were conducted. Results showed that the soluble carbohydrates in the water-phase were mainly composed of monomers and oligomers from xylose and glucose, while the contents of which were depended on the ratio of GVL to water. Moreover, the inhibitors were hardly detected due to the moderate pretreatment severity. Compared with the untreated feedstock, the yields of enzymatic hydrolysis from pretreated samples increased by two-fold with the mixture of 80/20 GVL/H2O. Combined with the amount of glucose (14.6%) dissolved in the water-phase, over 92.6% of glucose in cotton stalk was released and recovered. Based on the comprehensive analysis, treatment with GVL/H2O system provided us a more effective approach for sugar production from biomass., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study investigated the thermal decomposition characteristics and pyrolytic products of anaerobic digested rice straw (ADRS) by thermogravimetric (TG) and pyrolysis-gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) analysis. Compared with the raw rice straw (RS), the thermal decomposition temperature of ADRS was shifted to higher temperature zone and the second decomposition zone of cellulose (Toffset(c)-Tpeak) became narrower (14 °C less), which indicated that the composition of rice straw were changed significantly by the anaerobic digestion pretreatment. Py-GC/MS analysis showed that the quality of the bio-oil and the selectivity of pyrolytic products could be obviously improved by anaerobic digestion. The total yields of alcohols, acids, aldehydes, furans, anhydrosugars, and ketones pyrolysis substances decreased, while the yield of phenols increased. The yield of 4-Vinylphenol (4-VP) increased from 29.33%, 8.21% and 5.76% to 34.93%, 12.46% and 7.68% at 330, 450 and 650 °C, respectively, after anaerobic digestion., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study demonstrated at the pilot-scale (50 kg) use of Douglas-fir forest harvest residue, an underutilized forest biomass, for the production of high titer and high yield bioethanol using sulfite chemistry without solid-liquor separation and detoxification. Sulfite Pretreatment to Overcome the Recalcitrance of Lignocelluloses (SPORL) was directly applied to the ground forest harvest residue with no further mechanical size reduction, at a low temperature of 145°C and calcium bisulfite or total SO2 loadings of only 6.5 or 6.6 wt% on oven dry forest residue, respectively. The low temperature pretreatment facilitated high solids fermentation of the un-detoxified pretreated whole slurry. An ethanol yield of 282 L/tonne, equivalent to 70% theoretical, with a titer of 42 g/L was achieved. SPORL solubilized approximately 45% of the wood lignin as directly marketable lignosulfonate with properties equivalent to or better than a commercial lignosulfonate, important to improve the economics of biofuel production., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This manuscript presents a study on alkaline pretreatment of Vietnamese rice (Oryza sativa L.) straw that grows in Northern Vietnam for enzymatic saccharification. The NaOH pretreatment (soda cooking) and NaOH/Na2S pretreatment (sulfate cooking) were applied for rice straw pretreatment, which have relatively similar condition with industrial pulping processes but at lower temperature. Pretreated biomass solid was then enzymatic hydrolyzed by commercial enzyme Cellic®CTec2 (Novozymes) with enzyme dosage of 35 FPU/g to achieve reducing sugars. The suitable condition for pretreatment was found at temperature of about 100 °C, pretreatment time of 2 h, and solid/liquid ratio of 1:10 with active alkali dosage of 20 % of dry rice straw. Under this pretreatment condition, sugar yield in enzymatic hydrolysis up to 45.33 and 48.92 % over dry rice straw could be obtained after soda cooking and sulfate cooking pretreatment, respectively. Moreover, the changes of components of rice straw after pretreatment were also studied. The crystallinity of cellulose in pretreated biomass solid was calculated from XRD pattern. And the fibril morphology after treatment was revealed by the microscopic observations performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Laccase treatment is a promising approach to remove lignin from prehydrolysis liquor (PHL) for value added utilization of hemicellulose rich waste streams. Modeling the lignin removal process is of practical interest for prediction and control of laccase treatment of PHL. The present study focused on the lignin removal through variation of laccase charge and treatment time. Results showed that the lignin removal may be divided into two phases, i.e. a fast initial phase followed by a second slow phase. A kinetic model based on the experimental results was developed, which can be used to predict the lignin removal of PHL during the laccase treatment., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Laccase enzymes are promising detoxifying agents during lignocellulosic bioethanol production from wheat straw. However, they affect the enzymatic hydrolysis of this material by lowering the glucose recovery yields. This work aimed at explaining the negative effects of laccase on enzymatic hydrolysis. Relative glucose recovery in presence of laccase (10IU/g substrate) with model cellulosic substrate (Sigmacell) at 10% (w/v) was almost 10% points lower (P<0.01) than in the absence of laccase. This fact could be due to an increase in the competition of cellulose binding sites between the enzymes and a slight inhibition of β-glucosidase activity. However, enzymatic hydrolysis and infrared spectra of laccase-treated and untreated wheat straw filtered pretreated residue (WS-FPR), revealed that a grafting process of phenoxy radicals onto the lignin fiber could be the cause of diminished accessibility of cellulases to cellulose in pretreated wheat straw., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Acetic acid ethanol-based organosolv pretreatment of sugar cane bagasse was performed to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis. The effect of different parameters (including temperature, reaction time, solvent concentration, and acid catalyst dose) on pretreatment prehydrolyzate and subsequent enzymatic digestibility was determined. During the pretreatment process, 11.83 g of xylose based on 100 g of raw material could be obtained. After the ethanol-based pretreatment, the enzymatic hydrolysis was enhanced and the highest glucose yield of 40.99 g based on 100 g of raw material could be obtained, representing 93.8% of glucose in sugar cane bagasse. The maximum total sugar yields occurred at 190 °C, 45 min, 60:40 ethanol/water, and 5% dosage of acetic acid, reaching 58.36 g (including 17.69 g of xylose and 40.67 g of glucose) based on 100 g of raw material, representing 85.4% of total sugars in raw material. Furthermore, characterization of the pretreated sugar cane bagasse using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses were also developed. The results suggested that ethanol-based organosolv pretreatment could enhance enzymatic digestibilities because of the delignification and removal of xylan.

In this work an environmentally friendly hydrotropic process was used to extract lignin from industrial birch wood chips. Two hydrotropic treatments were performed, a conventional and a modified process. The lignins were characterized using FTIR, pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (pyrolysis-GC-MS), (31)P and (1)H-(13)C HSQC NMR, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The chemical (carbohydrates, extractives, etc.) and elemental compositions of the lignins were also determined. The yields of both lignins were 16.1% (dry wood basis), and the obtained lignins had very low contents of non-lignin compounds. The treatments resulted in significant changes of the structure of the lignins, a decrease in aliphatic hydroxyls and an increase in phenolic ones. The lignin isolated by the modified treatment underwent more substantial change than the reference one. It is believed that the data presented will facilitate utilization of hydrotropic lignin and promote the adoption of the hydrotropic process in the pulp and biorefinery industry.

This study investigated the autohydrolysis pre-treatment prior to chemi-thermomechanical pulping (CTMP) process including the effects of autohydrolysis pretreatment with a lower severity on characteristics of the autohydrolysis liquor and hydrolyzed chips. The intensity of autohydrolysis, characterized by the severity factor, increased from 1.76 to 3.54, the hydrolyzed chips yield decreased from 99.0% to 86.7% and the xylose extraction yield increased from 0.8% to 44.0%. The content of holocellulose, pentosan and acid soluble lignin remained in the hydrolyzed chips decreased dramatically with increasing the treatment severity. After the autohydrolysis pretreatment, the resultant poplar chemi-thermomechanical pulp with a severity factor of 2.37 could obtain a 15.3 Nm/g tensile index, 58.6% ISO brightness and a 2.39 cm(3)/g bulk., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Steam explosion and steam pre-treatment have proved capable of enhancing enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic materials. However, until now, these methods had not been compared under the same operational conditions and using the same raw material. Both pre-treatments lead to increased yields in the saccharification of Eucalyptus globulus; but results have been better with steam pre-treatments, despite the more accessible surface of exploded samples. The reason for this finding could be enzymatic inhibition: steam explosion causes a more extensive extraction of hemicelluloses and releases a greater amount of degradation products which can inhibit enzymatic action. Enzymatic inhibition is also dependent on the amount and chemical structure of lignin, which was also a contributing factor to the lower enzymatic yields obtained with the most severe pre-treatment. Thus, the highest yields (46.7% glucose and 73.4% xylose yields) were obtained after two cycle of steam treatment, of 5 and 3 min, at 183°C., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The effects of lignosulfonate (SXSL) and long-chain fatty alcohols (LFAs) on the rheology and enzymatic hydrolysis of high-solid corncob slurries were investigated. The application of 2.5% (w/w) SXSL increased the substrate enzymatic digestibility (SED) of high-solid corncob slurries at 72 h from 31.7 to 54.0%, but meanwhile it increased the slurry's yield stress and complex viscosity to make the slurry difficult to stir and pump. The smallest molecular weight (MW) SXSL fraction had the strongest enhancement on SED. The SXSL fraction with large MW had a negative effect on rheology. n-Octanol (C8) and n-decanol (C10) improved the rheological properties of high-solid slurry and are strong enough to counteract the negative effect of SXSL. Furthermore, C8 and C10 clearly enhanced the enzymatic hydrolysis of high-solid corncob slurries with and without SXSL. A mechanism was proposed to explain the observed negative effect of SXSL and the positive effect of LFAs on the rheological properties.

The transformation of modern industries towards enhanced sustainability is facilitated by green technologies that rely extensively on rare earth elements (REEs) such as cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), terbium (Tb), and lanthanum (La). The occurrence of productive mining sites, e.g., is limited, and production is often costly and environmentally harmful. As a consequence of increased utilization, REEs enter our ecosystem as industrial process water or wastewater and become highly diluted. Once diluted, they can hardly be recovered by conventional techniques, but using cyanobacterial biomass in a biosorption-based process is a promising eco-friendly approach. Cyanobacteria can produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that show high affinity to metal cations. However, the adsorption of REEs by EPS has not been part of extensive research. Thus, we evaluated the role of EPS in the biosorption of Ce, Nd, Tb, and La for three terrestrial, heterocystous cyanobacterial strains. We cultivated them under N-limited and non-limited conditions and extracted their EPS for compositional analyses. Subsequently, we investigated the metal uptake of a) the extracted EPS, b) the biomass extracted from EPS, and c) the intact biomass with EPS by comparing the amount of sorbed REEs. Maximum adsorption capacities for the tested REEs of extracted EPS were 123.9–138.2 mg g−1 for Komarekiella sp. 89.12, 133.1–137.4 mg g−1 for Desmonostoc muscorum 90.03, and 103.5–129.3 mg g−1 for Nostoc sp. 20.02. A comparison of extracted biomass with intact biomass showed that 16% (Komarekiella sp. 89.12), 28% (Desmonostoc muscorum 90.03), and 41% (Nostoc sp. 20.02) of REE adsorption was due to the biosorption of the extracellular EPS. The glucose- rich EPS (15%–43% relative concentration) of all three strains grown under nitrogen-limited conditions showed significantly higher biosorption rates for all REEs. We also found a significantly higher maximum adsorption capacity of all REEs for the extracted EPS compared to cells without EPS and untreated biomass, highlighting the important role of the EPS as a binding site for REEs in the biosorption process. EPS from cyanobacteria could thus be used as efficient biosorbents in future applications for REE recycling, e.g., industrial process water and wastewater streams.

Biosorption of metal ions by phototrophic microorganisms is regarded as a sustainable and alternative method for bioremediation and metal recovery. In this study, 12 cyanobacterial strains, including 7 terrestrial and 5 aquatic cyanobacteria, covering a broad phylogenetic diversity were investigated for their potential application in the enrichment of rare earth elements through biosorption. A screening for the maximum adsorption capacity of cerium, neodymium, terbium, and lanthanum was conducted in which Nostoc sp. 20.02 showed the highest adsorption capacity with 84.2–91.5 mg g-1. Additionally, Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973, Calothrix brevissima SAG 34.79, Desmonostoc muscorum 90.03, and Komarekiella sp. 89.12 were promising candidate strains, with maximum adsorption capacities of 69.5–83.4 mg g-1, 68.6–83.5 mg g-1, 44.7–70.6 mg g-1, and 47.2–67.1 mg g-1 respectively. Experiments with cerium on adsorption properties of the five highest metal adsorbing strains displayed fast adsorption kinetics and a strong influence of the pH value on metal uptake, with an optimum at pH 5 to 6. Studies on binding specificity with mixed-metal solutions strongly indicated an ion-exchange mechanism in which Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ ions are replaced by other metal cations during the biosorption process. Depending on the cyanobacterial strain, FT-IR analysis indicated the involvement different functional groups like hydroxyl and carboxyl groups during the adsorption process. Overall, the application of cyanobacteria as biosorbent in bioremediation and recovery of rare earth elements is a promising method for the development of an industrial process and has to be further optimized and adjusted regarding metal-containing wastewater and adsorption efficiency by cyanobacterial biomass.

In analogy to higher plants, eukaryotic microalgae are thought to be incapable of utilizing green light for growth, due to the “green gap” in the absorbance profiles of their photosynthetic pigments. This study demonstrates, that the marine chlorophyte Picochlorum sp. is able to grow efficiently under green light emitting diode (LED) illumination. Picochlorum sp. growth and pigment profiles under blue, red, green and white LED illumination (light intensity: 50–200 μmol m−2 s−1) in bottom-lightened shake flask cultures were evaluated. Green light-treated cultures showed a prolonged initial growth lag phase of one to 2 days, which was subsequently compensated to obtain comparable biomass yields to red and white light controls (approx. 0.8 gDW L−1). Interestingly, growth and final biomass yields of the green light-treated sample were higher than under blue light with equivalent illumination energies. Further, pigment analysis indicated, that during green light illumination, Picochlorum sp. formed unknown pigments (X1-X4). Pigment concentrations increased with illumination intensity and were most abundant during the exponential growth phase. Mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance data indicated, that pigments X1-X2 and X3-X4 are derivatives of chlorophyll b and a, which harbor C=C bonds in the phytol side chain similar to geranylgeranylated chlorophylls. Thus, for the first time, the natural accumulation of large pools (approx. 12 mg gDW−1) of chlorophyll intermediates with incomplete hydrogenation of their phytyl chains is demonstrated for algae under monochromatic green light (Peak λ 510 nm, full width at half maximum 91 nm). The ability to utilize green light offers competitive advantages for enhancing biomass production, particularly under conditions of dense cultures, long light pathways and high light intensity. Green light acclimation for an eukaryotic microalgae in conjunction with the formation of new aberrant geranylgeranylated chlorophylls and high efficiency of growth rates are novel for eukaryotic microalgae. Illumination with green light could enhance productivity in industrial processes and trigger the formation of new metabolites–thus, underlying mechanisms require further investigation.

In this study water soluble compounds that form complexes with Rare Earth Elements (REE) and other metals were isolated from Calothrix brevissima biomass with chromatographic methods for the first time. Molecular characterization showed that the isolated compounds are most likely polysaccharides comprised of arabinose, xylose, mannose, galactose and glucose. FT-IR analysis revealed functional groups involved in the binding mechanism of Tb are likely sulfate- and to a lesser extend hydroxyl-groups. The binding specificity of the isolated compounds was investigated with different metal solutions. Here, ions of the alkali and alkaline earth metals Na, K, Mg and Ca showed no competition for Tb-binding even at 10-fold excess concentration. Ions of the elements Co and Pb on the other hand replaced Tb at higher concentrations. Addition of the isolated compounds significantly reduced the precipitation of Eu at pH-values between 6.7 and 9.5, indicating that the interaction between the isolated chelators and Rare Earth Metals is stable even at high pH-values.