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    <journal-meta>
      <journal-title-group><journal-title>Journal of Biological and Sustainability Sciences</journal-title></journal-title-group>
      <publisher><publisher-name>BIOSUSS Publishing</publisher-name></publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">xoo6tjh5yn5iv0kr16b2jaa5</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5281/zenodo.21527056</article-id>
      <article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories>
      <title-group><article-title>Integrated Alkali–Enzyme Pretreatment Enhances Xylitol and Ethanol Production from Agricultural Residues Using Kluyveromyces spp. and Saccharomyces cerevisiae</article-title></title-group>
      <contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><string-name>Muhammad Noman</string-name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><string-name>Malik Alamgir</string-name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><string-name>Irum Badshah Saleem</string-name></contrib></contrib-group>
      <aff id="aff1">Department of Biosciences, Grand Asian University Sialkot, 7 km Pasrur Road, Sialkot, Pakistan Department of Chemistry, University of Baltistan, Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Department of Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan</aff>
      
      <pub-date date-type="pub" publication-format="electronic" iso-8601-date="2025-08-19"><day>19</day><month>08</month><year>2025</year></pub-date>
      
      <volume>1</volume>
      <issue>1</issue>
      <fpage>42</fpage>
      <lpage>49</lpage>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Copyright © 2025 the authors</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
          <license-p>This article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract><p>Lignocellulosic agricultural residues are abundant, underused feedstocks whose open burning contributes to environmental pollution. This study evaluated sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw, and corn cob for integrated xylitol and ethanol production. Biomass was subjected to acid or alkali pretreatment followed by enzymatic saccharification, and the resulting liquor and residual fractions were fermented with Kluyveromyces spp. and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Alkali–enzyme-treated sugarcane bagasse liquor produced the highest xylose concentration (36.27 g/L), whereas its residue contained 6.21 g/L glucose. Kluyveromyces spp. produced 28.54 g/L xylitol from sugarcane bagasse liquor, corresponding to a reported yield of 78.68% and volumetric productivity of 0.016 g/L/h. S. cerevisiae produced 4.26 g/L ethanol from the bagasse residue, with a reported yield of 69.40% and productivity of 0.236 g/L/h. Wheat straw hydrolysate showed the highest reported apparent xylitol yield (121.29%) at pH 6, indicating a need to verify the yield basis while confirming the strong influence of substrate composition and pH. Overall, combining alkali pretreatment with enzymatic saccharification improved fermentable-sugar recovery and supported dual-product valorization of agricultural residues. Sugarcane bagasse was the most promising feedstock for integrated xylitol and ethanol production, although scale-up, inhibitor control, and techno-economic evaluation remain necessary.</p></abstract>
      <kwd-group kwd-group-type="author-generated"><kwd>Lignocellulosic biomass</kwd><kwd>sugarcane bagasse</kwd><kwd>xylitol</kwd><kwd>ethanol</kwd><kwd>alkali pretreatment</kwd><kwd>enzymatic saccharification</kwd><kwd>yeast fermentation</kwd></kwd-group>
      <custom-meta-group><custom-meta><meta-name>funding-statement</meta-name><meta-value>This research received no external funding.</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>conflict-of-interest</meta-name><meta-value>The authors declare no conflict of interest.</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>ethics-approval</meta-name><meta-value>Not applicable</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>data-availability</meta-name><meta-value>Data supporting the findings are retained in the laboratory records of the Department of Biosciences, Grand Asian University Sialkot, Pakistan, and the Department of Chemistry, University of Baltistan, Skardu, Pakistan, and may be requested from the corresponding author.</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>author-contributions</meta-name><meta-value>Muhammad Noman: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, visualization, and writing—original draft preparation. Malik Alamgir: Methodology, validation, formal analysis, and writing—review and editing. Irum Badshah Saleem: Supervision, resources, validation, interpretation of results, and writing—review and editing. Muhammad Noman: Project administration and correspondence. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-group>
    </article-meta>
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