Synthetic biology has greatly advanced the scientific arena and offers new opportunities for industrial biotechnology. Much overlap exists between synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. By learning lessons from metabolic engineering, we may understand synthetic biology limitations and build up effective strategies to design microbial hosts for industrial applications.

Plant extract-mediated nanoparticle synthesis is gaining interest due to the ability to reduce toxicity of nanoparticles. The presence of phytochemicals in plants plays a significant role in initiating the reduction of metal precursors, contributing to the stabilization process, and helps in the formation of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles. This review highlights that, among phytochemicals, flavonoids are responsible for plant extract-mediated nanoparticle formation.

Emissions of greenhouse gases raise increasing environmental concerns. This review presents the potential of facilitated transport membranes for efficient CO₂ separation from various industrial flue gas streams, especially fixed-site-carrier membranes and their various influential parameters. Additionally, the article also covers mixed matrix membranes, gas transport models, and their properties.

Lignocellulose is a renewable energy source that can be used for the generation of bio-based fuels and chemicals. To obtain the cellulosic components for fuel synthesis, the lignin needs to be degraded first. Since chemical lignin degradation requires extreme reaction conditions and equipment, biological degradation could be a cost-effective alternative. Here, different procedures for lignin degradation are reviewed.