Challenges of Biomass Utilization for Bioenergy in a Climate Change Scenario

Abstract

The climate changes expected for the next decades will expose plants to increasing occurrences of combined abiotic stresses, including drought, higher temperatures, and elevated CO2 atmospheric concentrations. These abiotic stresses have significant consequences on photosynthesis and other plants’ physiological processes and can lead to tolerance mechanisms that impact metabolism dynamics and limit plant productivity. Furthermore, due to the high carbohydrate content on the cell wall, plants represent a an essential source of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuels production. Thus, it is necessary to estimate their potential as feedstock for renewable energy production in future climate conditions since the synthesis of cell wall components seems to be affected by abiotic stresses. This review provides a brief overview of plant responses and the tolerance mechanisms applied in climate change scenarios that could impact its use as lignocellulosic biomass for bioenergy purposes. Important steps of biofuel production, which might influence the effects of climate change, besides biomass pretreatments and enzymatic biochemical conversions, are also discussed. We believe that this study may improve our understanding of the plant biological adaptations to combined abiotic stress and assist in the decision-making for selecting key agronomic crops that can be efficiently adapted to climate changes and applied in bioenergy production.

Immobilization and Application of the Recombinant Xylanase GH10 of Malbranchea pulchella in the Production of Xylooligosaccharides from Hydrothermal Liquor of the Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus grandis) Wood Chips

“…We also assessed the effect of pH on the stability of the MpXyn10 derivatives with incubation in buffers ranging from pH 4.0 to pH 6.0 ( Figure 4 C), conditions used in the enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan and LCM [ 3 , 10 ]. MANAE- and Purolite-MpXyn10 derivatives showed a similar profile observed for free MpXyn10, with residual activities around 90% after 24 h of incubation at 25 °C, with maximum activity at pH 5.0 ( Figure 4 C).…”

“…In recent years, the biomass biorefinery concept has been extended beyond the technological application of bioethanol production. Innovative and efficient technologies for lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose fractionation allow the implementation of integrated processes for the co-production of bioenergy and higher value-added bioproducts, such as cello- and xylooligosaccharides and lignin derivatives [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. These strategies are necessary to maximize organic matter, reduce waste generation, and obtain products with high added-value, strengthening the circular bioeconomy in plant biomass biorefineries [ 5 ].…”

Mechanical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass toward enzymatic/fermentative valorization

“…Furthermore, it is renewable, biodegradable, and available ( Guiao et al., 2022 ). Additionally, LCB can have zero net CO 2 emissions ( Bastidas et al., 2022 ; de Freitas et al., 2021 ) as trees and plants act as CO 2 sinks ( Saifuddin et al., 2020 ).…”

Co-cultivation, Co-culture, Mixed Culture, and Microbial Consortium of Fungi: An Understudied Strategy for Biomass Conversion

“…To make things worse, the demand for oil and gas is expected to peak in the next two decades. 2 The prevailing linear economy based on the take-make-dispose system is unsustainable (Sariatli, 2017 ) and climate change already affects biological systems around the globe (Freitas et al, 2021 ). There will not be a “one-stop shop” type of solution, but we need to transition to a circular economy and biorefineries are a great place to start (Ubando et al, 2020 ).…”