title: Deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals.
abstract: Plants represent a vast, renewable resource and are well suited to provide sustainably for humankind's transportation fuel needs. To produce infrastructure-compatible fuels from biomass, two challenges remain: overcoming plant cell wall recalcitrance to extract sugar and phenolic intermediates, and reduction of oxygenated intermediates to fuel molecules. To compete with fossil-based fuels, two primary routes to deconstruct cell walls are under development, namely biochemical and thermochemical conversion. Here, we focus on overcoming recalcitrance with biochemical conversion, which uses low-severity thermochemical pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to produce soluble sugars. Many challenges remain, including understanding how pretreatments affect the physicochemical nature of heterogeneous cell walls; determination of how enzymes deconstruct the cell wall effectively with the aim of designing superior catalysts; and resolution of issues associated with the co-optimization of pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation. Here, we highlight some of the scientific challenges and open questions with a particular focus on problems across multiple length scales.
authors.affiliation: Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. chundawa@msu.edu
authors.forename: Shishir P S
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Chundawat
authors.forename: Gregg T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Beckham
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Himmel
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Dale
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D018533:Biomass; D002384:Catalysis; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D044602:Cellulases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010944:Plants / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000737:chemistry; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D014242:Trichoderma / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin; D044602:Cellulases