Engineering Plant Biomass Lignin Content and Composition for Biofuels and Bioproducts

Welker, Cassie Marie; Balasubramanian, Vimal Kumar; Petti, Carloalberto; Mohan, Krishan; DeBolt, Seth; Mendu, Venugopal

doi:10.3390/en8087654

Cited by 169 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 120 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable natural resource for the carbon-neutral production of biofuels and biochemicals (Vanholme et al, 2013a;Wilkerson et al, 2014;Welker et al, 2015) that is readily available from agricultural crop residues, inedible plant tissues, or dedicated biomass crops (Abramson et al, 2010). Plant secondary cell walls, which make up the bulk of lignocellulosic biomass, are composed mainly of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Silencing CHALCONE SYNTHASE in Maize Impedes the Incorporation of Tricin into Lignin and Increases Lignin Content

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lignin is a phenolic heteropolymer that is deposited in secondary-thickened cell walls, where it provides mechanical strength. A recent structural characterization of cell walls from monocot species showed that the flavone tricin is part of the native lignin polymer, where it is hypothesized to initiate lignin chains. In this study, we investigated the consequences of altered tricin levels on lignin structure and cell wall recalcitrance by phenolic profiling, nuclear magnetic resonance, and saccharification assays of the naturally silenced maize (Zea mays) C2-Idf (inhibitor diffuse) mutant, defective in the CHALCONE SYNTHASE Colorless2 (C2) gene. We show that the C2-Idf mutant produces highly reduced levels of apigenin-and tricin-related flavonoids, resulting in a strongly reduced incorporation of tricin into the lignin polymer. Moreover, the lignin was enriched in b-b and b-5 units, lending support to the contention that tricin acts to initiate lignin chains and that, in the absence of tricin, more monolignol dimerization reactions occur. In addition, the C2-Idf mutation resulted in strikingly higher Klason lignin levels in the leaves. As a consequence, the leaves of C2-Idf mutants had significantly reduced saccharification efficiencies compared with those of control plants. These findings are instructive for lignin engineering strategies to improve biomass processing and biochemical production.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Silencing CHALCONE SYNTHASE in Maize Impedes the Incorporation of Tricin into Lignin and Increases Lignin Content

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The degradation of hemicellulose present in microalgae biomass with higher carboxyl content (−COOH) accounted for CO 2 production and the presence of cellulose results in a higher CO yield, this is mainly attributed to the thermal cracking of carbonyl (C=O) and carboxyl (−COOH). In general, microalgae biomass does not contain lignin, which is required for structural support in larger plants but some exceptions exists for example, in Calliarthron cheilosporioide lignin is found and also in some sea weeds, compounds resembling lignin are found . The cracking and deformation of lignin in plants is responsible for the release of H 2 and CH 4 in the reaction, which is difficult to decompose due to the presence of aromatic rings and methoxyl (−O−CH 3 ) groups but in the present study, lignin free microalgae biomass offers advantages for downstream processing.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the fibrous component structure function is to maintain the position of the nucleus in the cell cycle. The structure of the biomass was destroyed because of decomposition of alkanes, aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acid, alcohols and other macro molecules and, furthermore, torrefaction improves the grindability properties of the torrefied biomass as a fuel feedstock for example, combustion or gasification . The torrefied biomass becomes hydrophobic in nature and does not absorb moisture, improving storage characteristics.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mild Pyrolysis of Manually Pressed and Liquid Nitrogen Treated De‐Lipid Cake of Nannochloropsis Oculata for Bioenergy Utilisation

Ali

Watson

2018

Energy Tech

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to the damaging impacts of continued use of fossil fuels, there is global interest in developing sustainable biofuel production to reduce society's dependency on carbon based energy resources. Microalgae cultivation can contribute to CO2 fixation from the atmosphere, while simultaneously producing a source of lipids from the biomass for third generation biodiesel fuel production. The residual de‐lipid cake left after lipid extraction can be treated with thermochemical techniques (such as mild pyrolysis) to produce solid biochar as an end product with a higher energy density and lower moisture content offering advantages for downstream processing or carbon sequestration. De‐lipid cake was produced by solvent extraction from Nannochloropsis oculata that had been manually pressed and/or treated with liquid nitrogen (LN2). The de‐lipid cake was thermally treated at 200 °C or 300 °C under partial vacuum in an oxygen free atmosphere. The solid biochar produced had a reduced moisture content (MC) resulting in a mass reduction of 25 and 66 wt % of de‐lipid cake without LN2 and treatment at 200 °C and 300 °C, respectively, while with LN2 treated cake the mass reduction was 23 and 67 wt % at 200 °C and 300 °C. The higher heating value of the control sample (without any manual pressing or LN2 treatment) was 23.35 MJ kg−1, while for the control sample it was enhanced to 26.82 and 30.56 MJ kg−1 with treatment at 200 °C and 300 °C, respectively. With LN2 treated samples with pressing the HHV was 21.98 MJ kg−1 for control sample as compared to 25.90 and 28.72 MJ kg−1 at 200 and 300 °C respectively, where the lower values were observed because of the lipid removal. The measured gas pressure developed, likely due to the production of CO2 and CH4 as major gases,, was 0.19 and 0.53 bars without LN2 treatment samples, while it was 0.13 and 0.58 bars with LN2. The torrefaction process (mild pyrolysis) energy analysis showed that the ER (energy ratio) without LN2 treatment sample with 0.485 at 200 °C was the highest and the lowest 0.407 energy ratio was found with LN2 treated sample at the higher treatment temperature (300 °C).

show abstract

“…Lignin is not present in algae although some sea weeds (Calliarthron cheilosporioides) have found its precursors (proteins/enzymes) or compounds (p-coumaryl) resembling lignin. [134][135][136][137][138] In some cases, one or more of these enzymes were possibly acquired through lateral gene transfer from bacteria and culture as required. The amount of true lignin is negligible in total percentage.…”

Section: Algal Biomass For Biofuelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future prospects of delignification pretreatments for the lignocellulosic materials to produce second generation bioethanol

Baig

Turcotte

2019

Int J Energy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Production of bioethanol is winning support from masses because it is a workable choice to solve the problems associated with the fluctuating prices of crude petroleum oil, climatic change, and reducing non‐renewable fuel reserves. First‐generation biofuels are produced directly from food crops. The biofuel (bioethanol, biodiesel) is ultimately derived from the starch, sugar, animal fats, and vegetable oil that these crops provide. It is important to note that the structure of the biofuel itself does not change between generations, but rather the source from which the fuel is derived changes. Corn, wheat, and sugar cane are the most commonly used first‐generation bioethanol feed stocks. Lignocellulosic materials are used as a feed stock for the production of second‐generation bioethanol. The major production steps are (1) delignification, (2) depolymerisation, and (3) fermentation. Agricultural residues are waste materials produced through the processing of agricultural crops. The main reason to use of these agricultural residues to produce bioethanol is to convert waste to value added products. The main challenges are the low yield of the cellulosic hydrolysis process due to the presence of lignin and hemicellulose with cellulose. Pretreatments of lignocellulosic materials to remove lignin and hemicellulose are the techniques used to enhance the hydrolysis. Present review article comprehensively discusses the different pretreatment methods of delignification for ethanol production. Published literature on pretreatments from 1982 to 2018 has been studied. Perspectives, gaps in studies, and recommendations are given to fully describe implementation of eight prominent pretreatments (milling, pyrolysis, organic solvents, steam explosion, hot water treatments, ozonolysis, enzymatic delignification, and genetic modification) for future research. The energy and environmental features of lignocellulosic materials are elaborated to show a sustainable aspect of second‐generation biofuel. It was felt necessary to discuss the concept of bio refinery to make biofuel production financially more attractive as well because the future prospects of second‐generation biofuel are promising.

show abstract

Engineering Plant Biomass Lignin Content and Composition for Biofuels and Bioproducts

Cited by 169 publications

References 120 publications

Silencing CHALCONE SYNTHASE in Maize Impedes the Incorporation of Tricin into Lignin and Increases Lignin Content

Silencing CHALCONE SYNTHASE in Maize Impedes the Incorporation of Tricin into Lignin and Increases Lignin Content

Mild Pyrolysis of Manually Pressed and Liquid Nitrogen Treated De‐Lipid Cake of Nannochloropsis Oculata for Bioenergy Utilisation

Future prospects of delignification pretreatments for the lignocellulosic materials to produce second generation bioethanol

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About