The DOE Bioenergy Research Centers: History, Operations, and Scientific Output

Slater, Steven; Simmons, Blake A.; Rogers, Tamara S.; Phillips, Margaret; Nordahl, Kristy; Davison, Brian H.

doi:10.1007/s12155-015-9660-8

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Progress by the three US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Centers over the last 7 years (Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI Berkeley), Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC Madison), and Bioenergy Science Center (BESC Oak Ridge)) has been reviewed recently (Peters 2014;Klein-Marcuschamer and Blanch 2015;Papoutsakis 2015;Slater et al 2015). Key research areas addressed were biomass supply, crop optimization, deconstruction of biomass, and conversion of biomass to fuels.…”

Section: Research and Commercial Development Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating a Biorefinery into an Operating Kraft Mill

Johnson¹,

Hart²

2016

BioResources

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Kraft pulp and paper mills have several advantages for serving the emerging biorefinery industry as a source of raw materials. This review examines technologies for producing liquid biofuels, chemicals, and advanced materials from woody feedstocks to generate new sources of revenue. Market pull comes in part from government policies that drive substitution of petroleum-based products with biobased equivalents. Kraft mills have ample networks to supply feedstocks, whether these are forest residues or byproduct side streams. Pulp mills are well suited to expand sufficiently to accommodate production of value added platform chemicals that are in demand because of brand owner sustainability commitments.

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Section: Research and Commercial Development Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating a Biorefinery into an Operating Kraft Mill

Johnson¹,

Hart²

2016

BioResources

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“…From late 2007 to fall 2017, BESC published more than 945 journal articles, 10% in high-profile journals (impact factor > 9) and advanced the education of more than 230 professionals, who are now productive members of the bioeconomy workforce. More details with respect to the output of BESC and the other two USDOE Bioenergy Research Centers are in Slater et al [ 5 ].…”

Section: Discussion: Major Accomplishments To Datementioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in understanding and overcoming biomass recalcitrance: a BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) perspective

Gilna

Lynd

Mohnen

et al. 2017

Biotechnol Biofuels

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The DOE BioEnergy Science Center has operated as a virtual center with multiple partners for a decade targeting overcoming biomass recalcitrance. BESC has redefined biomass recalcitrance from an observable phenotype to a better understood and manipulatable fundamental and operational property. These manipulations are the result of deeper biological understanding and can be combined with other advanced biotechnology improvements in biomass conversion to improve bioenergy processes and markets. This article provides an overview of key accomplishments in overcoming recalcitrance via better plants, better microbes, and better tools and combinations. A perspective on the aspects of successful center operation is presented.

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“…We studied the trophic niches of organisms inhabiting three long‐term experiments managed by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center ( GLBRC , Slater et al., 2015; USDOE, 2018) at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan (42°24′18″N, 85°24′02″W, 275 m a.s.l.).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

Helms

Roeder

Ijelu

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Changes in trophic niche—the pathways through which an organism obtains energy and nutrients—are a fundamental way in which organisms respond to environmental conditions. But the capacity for species to alter their trophic niches in response to global change, and the ways they do so when able, remain largely unknown. Here we examine food webs in three long‐term and large‐scale experiments to test how resource availability and nutritional requirements interact to determine an organism's trophic niche in the context of one of the largest global trends in land use—the rise in bioenergy production. We use carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses to characterize arthropod food webs across three biofuel crops representing a gradient in plant resource richness (corn monocultures, fields dominated by native switchgrass and restored prairie), and to quantify changes in the trophic niche of a widespread generalist ant species across habitats. In doing so, we measure the effects of basal resource richness on food chain length, niche breadth and trophic position. We frame our results in the context of two hypotheses that explain variation in trophic niche—the niche variation hypothesis which emphasizes the importance of resource diversity and ecological opportunity, and the optimal diet hypothesis which emphasizes dietary constraints and the availability of optimal resources. Increasing plant richness lengthened food chains by 10%–20% compared to monocultures. Niche breadths of generalist ants did not vary with resource richness, suggesting they were limited by optimal diet requirements and constraints rather than by ecological opportunity. The ants instead responded to changes in plant richness by shifting their estimated trophic position. In resource‐poor monocultures, the ants were top predators, sharing a trophic position with predatory spiders. In resource‐rich environments, in contrast, the ants were omnivores, relying on a mix of animal prey and plant‐based resources. In addition to highlighting novel ecosystem impacts of alternate bioenergy landscapes, our results suggest that niche breadth and trophic diversification depend more on the presence of optimal resources than on ecological opportunity alone.

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The DOE Bioenergy Research Centers: History, Operations, and Scientific Output

Cited by 9 publications

References 87 publications

Integrating a Biorefinery into an Operating Kraft Mill

Integrating a Biorefinery into an Operating Kraft Mill

Progress in understanding and overcoming biomass recalcitrance: a BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) perspective

Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

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