Targets and tools for optimizing lignocellulosic biomass quality of miscanthus

Abstract

Evaluation of Miscanthus sinensis biomass quality as feedstock for conversion into different bioenergy products 95 Chapter 5Stability of cell wall composition and saccharification efficiency in Miscanthus across diverse environments 125 Chapter 6Dissecting genetic complexity of miscanthus cell wall composition and biomass quality for biofuels 149 Chapter 7Impact of drought stress on growth and quality of miscanthus for biofuel production 179 Chapter 8 General Discussion 205Acknowledgements 223 About the author 227 List of publications 228Overview of training activities 229 SummaryMiscanthus is a perennial energy grass characterized by a high productivity and resource-use efficiency, making it an ideal biomass feedstock for the production of cellulosic biofuels and a wide range of other biobased value-chains. However, the large-scale commercialization of converting biomass into cellulosic biofuel is hindered by our inability to efficiently deconstruct the plant cell wall. The plant cell wall is a complex and dynamic structure and its components are extensively cross-linked into an unyielding matrix. The production of biofuel depends on the extraction, hydrolysis and fermentation of cell wall polysaccharides, which currently requires energetically and chemically intensive processing operations that negatively affect the economic viability and sustainability of the industry. To address this challenge it is envisioned that the bioenergy feedstocks can be compositionally tailored to increase the accessibility and extractability of cell wall polysaccharides, which would allow a more efficient conversion of biomass into biofuel under milder processing conditions.Extensive phenotypic and genetic diversity in cell wall composition and conversion efficiency was observed in different miscanthus species, including M. sinensis, M. sacchariflorus and interspecific hybrids between these two species. In multiple experiments a twofold increase in the release of fermentable sugars was observed in 'high quality' accessions compared to 'low quality' accessions. The exhaustive characterization of eight highly diverse M. sinensis genotypes revealed novel and distinct breeding targets for different bioenergy conversion routes. The key traits that contributed favourably to the conversion efficiency of biomass into biofuel were a high content of hemicellulosic polysaccharides, extensive cross-linking of hemicellulosic polysaccharides (revealed by a high content of trans-ferulic acids and a high ratio of arabinose-to-xylose), a low lignin content and extensive incorporation of paracoumaric acid into the lignin polymer.Lignin is widely recognized as one of the key factors conveying recalcitrance against enzymatic deconstruction of the cell wall. The incorporation of para-coumaric acid into the lignin polymer is hypothesized to make lignin more easily degradable during alkaline pretreatment, one of the most widely applied processing methods that is used to pretreat biomass prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. Previous studies have shown that red...

Methane Yield Potential of Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus (Greef et Deuter)) Established under Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…Miscanthus biomass has quality characteristics that allow it to be used to manifold ways: as a combustion fuel, [8][9][10], bioethanol [11][12][13], bedding material [10,14,15], building material [16][17][18][19][20] and in biogas production [21,22]. For example, low inorganic constituents and high lignin content is preferred for combustion [23], whereas low lignin is required for efficient biogas [24] as well as ethanol production [25]. Miscanthus can also be a feedstock to processes including pyrolysis that can produce hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel [26].…”