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Biomass recalcitrance: a multi-scale, multi-factor, and conversion-specific property.
- Source :
-
Journal of experimental botany [J Exp Bot] 2015 Jul; Vol. 66 (14), pp. 4109-18. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Jun 09. - Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Recalcitrance of plant biomass to enzymatic hydrolysis for biofuel production is thought to be a property conferred by lignin or lignin-carbohydrate complexes. However, chemical catalytic and thermochemical conversion pathways, either alone or in combination with biochemical and fermentative pathways, now provide avenues to utilize lignin and to expand the product range beyond ethanol or butanol. To capture all of the carbon in renewable biomass, both lignin-derived aromatics and polysaccharide-derived sugars need to be transformed by catalysts to liquid hydrocarbons and high-value co-products. We offer a new definition of recalcitrance as those features of biomass which disproportionately increase energy requirements in conversion processes, increase the cost and complexity of operations in the biorefinery, and/or reduce the recovery of biomass carbon into desired products. The application of novel processing technologies applied to biomass reveal new determinants of recalcitrance that comprise a broad range of molecular, nanoscale, and macroscale factors. Sampling natural genetic diversity within a species, transgenic approaches, and synthetic biology approaches are all strategies that can be used to select biomass for reduced recalcitrance in various pretreatments and conversion pathways.<br /> (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Subjects :
- Hydrolysis
Lignin metabolism
Biomass
Plants metabolism
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1460-2431
- Volume :
- 66
- Issue :
- 14
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of experimental botany
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 26060266
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erv267