When people are talking about the need to improve the effectiveness of pretreatment technologies for biomass to reduce the cost of overall conversion of biomass into biofuels or biochemicals, a different strategy has come to the table. In terms of the well-known dependency of biomass recalcitrance on plant resources, it is natural to consider the opportunity of reducing the recalcitrance of biomass via the genetic engineering of the biomass. The forest product industry has extensively championed the use of plant genetics to tailor the composition, structure and reactivity of softwood and hardwood biopolymers, especially lignin. The study results demonstrate the potential to modify specific biopolymer constituents in biomass to confer benefits in subsequent chemical operations. It is reasonable to anticipate that the progress will be made to genetically engineer low-recalcitrance biomass such as reduced lignin content, modifications in cellulose crystallinity, differing hemicellulose structures and reduced lignin-carbohydrate complexes. This endeavour will be costly but will be compensated by reducing or removing pretreatment costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment