Metal-organic frameworks-enabled lignocellulose valorization toward medium-chain fatty acids: From sustainable...

Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable carbon source for medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) production, but conversion from solid feedstock to recoverable C6-C8 products is limited by biomass recalcitrance, enzyme deactivation, microbial inhibition, and downstream separation. This review critically evaluates metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as stage-specific materials rather than a universal platform, linking manufacture and stability to biomass conversion, enzyme immobilization, carbohydrate upgrading, chain elongation, product recovery, regeneration, and process economics. Direct studies are distinguished from related-system evidence, mechanistic interpretations, and proposed integrations, with comparisons constrained by material identity, process matrix, and reported endpoints. Key trade-offs concern activity and stability, enzyme protection and substrate access, and adsorption affinity and release. Initial direct studies report enhanced caproate production with MOF-assisted chain elongation, whereas selective and repeated C6-C8 recovery from real chain-elongation broth remains insufficiently demonstrated. The most defensible near-term route is modular, stream-matched use of MOFs rather than a single multifunctional material spanning the biorefinery.