Cell‐wall carbohydrates and their modification as a resource for biofuels

Abstract

SummaryPlant cell walls represent the most abundant renewable resource on this planet. Despite their great abundance, only 2% of this resource is currently used by humans. Hence, research into the feasibility of using plant cell walls in the production of cost-effective biofuels is desirable. The main bottleneck for using wall materials is the recalcitrance of walls to efficient degradation into fermentable sugars. Manipulation of the wall polysaccharide biosynthetic machinery or addition of wall structure-altering agents should make it possible to tailor wall composition and architecture to enhance sugar yields upon wall digestion for biofuel fermentation. Study of the biosynthetic machinery and its regulation is still in its infancy and represents a major scientific and technical research challenge. Of course, any change in wall structure to accommodate cost-efficient biofuel production may have detrimental effects on plant growth and development due to the diverse roles of walls in the life of a plant. However, the diversity and abundance of wall structures present in the plant kingdom gives hope that this challenge can be met.

Quantitative Insights into the Fast Pyrolysis of Extracted Cellulose, Hemicelluloses, and Lignin

“…For example, the detection of ribofuranoside, pyranose and furanose compounds (Table S3) confirms the highly heterogeneous nature of hemicelluloses in grasses, which have an arabinoxylan structure 31. For lignin, the detection of aromatic components: phenols (e.g., 2‐methylphenol, 4‐dimethylphenol, 4‐ethylphenol), guaiacols (e.g., 4‐methylguaiacol (creosol), 4‐ethylguaiacol, p ‐vinylguaiacol) and syringols (e.g., 2,6‐dimethoxy‐4,2‐propenylphenol; Table S3) confirms the presence of p ‐hydroxyphenyl (H), guaiacyl (G), and syringyl (S) phenylpropanoid units within the original material.…”

Relationships between Biomass Composition and Liquid Products Formed via Pyrolysis

“…f Galactoglucomannan is only abundant in gymnosperm woods. Dicots and grasses possess <8% of mannan and galactoglucomannan (Scheller and Ulvskov, 2010 (Pauly and Keegstra, 2008 increasing the content of phenolics relative to carbohydrates to reduce the oxygen content of bio-oil (Tanger et al, 2013). Here, we provide a more detailed description of the chemical structure and interactions among major cell wall components to aid in understanding more subtle relationships between biomass and bio-oil content.…”

“…Developing such thermal conversion processes would be aided by clearer knowledge of the relationship between biomass composition and thermal conversion products. Pauly and Keegstra (2008).…”

“…d As the highest percentage of xylan in Scheller and Ulvskov (2010) is higher than the highest percentage of hemicellulose in Pauly and Keegstra (2008) (Vega-Sanchez et al, 2012). f Galactoglucomannan is only abundant in gymnosperm woods.…”

Cultura de células em suspensão como ferramenta para estudos em parede celular secundária em gramí­neas C4

“…Monocotiledôneas comelinídeas (incluindo Poaceae) possuem parede celular do tipo II, apresentando como principal hemicelulose o arabinoxilano e (1,3)→(1,4)→β-glucano (também conhecido como glucano de ligação mista ou β-glucano), com menores teores de pectinas e maiores quantidades de compostos fenólicos ( Fig. 2) (Ridley et al, 2001;Fry, 2004;Carpita & McCann, 2008;Pauly & Keegstra, 2008;Vogel, 2008).…”