Production of high-starch duckweed and its conversion to bioethanol

Effect of nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency on transcriptional regulation of genes encoding key enzymes of starch metabolism in duckweed ( Landoltia punctata )

“…, a value 50% higher than that of maize-based ethanol production (Xu et al, 2011). These results clearly show that duckweed is a competitive starch source for bioethanol production.…”

Potential of duckweed in the conversion of wastewater nutrients to valuable biomass: A pilot-scale comparison with water hyacinth

“…Based on the accumulation rate of 2.06 g starch/m 2 /d, an annual starch yield of 7.52 tons per hectare would be achieved. According to the conversion efficiency (94.7%) from Xu et al (2011), the ethanol yield of duckweed reached 5.13 Â 10 3 L/ha/year, which was higher than that of maize-based ethanol production. The result strongly suggested that duckweed is a potential alternative feedstock for bioenergy production.…”

Culturing duckweed in the field for starch accumulation

“…Duckweed can also accumulate up to 75% of its dry weight as starch in optimal lab conditions (Reid and Bieleski, 1970), which makes it a possible feedstock for bioenergy production. Ethanol has been made from duckweed with a yield of 25.8% of the original dry duckweed biomass (Cheng and Stomp, 2009;Xu et al, 2011) or a concentration of 30.8 g/l (Chen et al, 2012). Duckweed has also been successfully converted into biobutanol (Li et al, 2012).…”

“…Duckweed growth (Frederic et al, 2006;Lasfar et al, 2007;Sultana et al, 2000) and photosynthesis (Mestayer et al, 1984;Wedge and Burris, 1982) have received much attention. However, few papers have focused on its starch accumulation (Xu et al, 2011). And the starch content of duckweed fronds has been found to be too low (<35% dry weight) to be used in bioenergy production in most previous studies.…”