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Diminishing fossil fuel resources as well as growing environmental and energy security concerns, in parallel with growing demands on raw materials and energy, have intensified global efforts to utilize wood biopolymers as a renewable resource to produce biofuels and biomaterials. Wood is one of the most abundant biopolymer composites on earth that can be converted into biofuels as well as used as a platform to produce bio-based materials. The major biopolymers in wood are cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin which account for >90% of dry weight. These polymers are generally associated with each other in wood cell walls resulting in an intricate and dynamic cell wall structure. This mini-review provides an overview of major wood biopolymers, their structure, and recent developments in their utilization to develop biofuels. Advances in genetic modifications to overcome the recalcitrance of woody biomass for biofuels are discussed and point to a promising future.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of enrichment procedure on the performance and microbial diversity of an air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) which was explored for simultaneous azo dye decolorization and electricity generation. Two different enrichment procedures in which glucose and Congo red were added into the MFCs sequentially (EP1) or simultaneously (EP2) were tested by operating parallel MFCs independently for more than 6 months. The power density, electrode potential, Congo red decolorization, biofilm morphology, and bacterial diversity of the MFCs under the two enrichment procedures were compared and investigated. The results showed that the enrichment procedures have a negligible effect on the dye decolorization, but significantly affected the electricity generation. More than 90% decolorization at dye concentration of 300 mg/L was achieved within 170 h for the two tested enrichment procedures. However, the MFC with EP2 achieved a maximum power density of 192 mW/m(2), which was 75% higher than that of the MFC with EP1 (110 mW/m(2)). The depressed surfaces of the bacteria in the MFC with EP1 indicated the allergic response caused by the subsequent addition of Congo red. 16S rRNA sequencing analysis demonstrated a phylogenetic diversity in the communities of the anode biofilm and showed clear differences between the anode-attached populations in the MFCs with a different enrichment procedure. This study suggests that the enrichment procedure is important for the MFC explored for simultaneous dye decolorization and electricity generation.