Research Highlights

Soil organic matter is critical for soil health and resilience, yet conventional cropping systems in the U.S. Midwest have lost 40-60% of initial levels. This study underscores the importance of cover crops, perennial crops, and no-till options for sequestering whole profile C in intensively farmed croplands whether managed for cellulosic bioenergy or grain.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) may be necessary to limit the rise in global temperatures but requires vast amounts of land, and the change in land use could have positive or negative impacts on the climate. This work examines three methods for estimating the impacts and shows how some scenarios can reduce warming.

Lignin, one of three main parts of plant cell walls, is a potential source of renewable chemicals such as PDC (2-Pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid), which can be used to make bioplastics. Crystallization is a common method for separating PDC from fermentation broths, but scientists don't fully understand the interplay of interactions that drive this aggregation and structure formation and how they depend on the charge of PDC and ionic species present.

Scientists with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center developed a Bayesian experimental design (BED) framework to guide solvent selection by predicting product partition coefficients as thermodynamic parameters. The iterative approach combines Bayesian optimization with empirical measurements and leverages conductor-like screening model for realistic solvents (COSMO-RS) calculations to guide high-throughput experimentation capabilities.

Bacteria lack membrane-bound organelles found in eukaryotic cells, but protein-coated compartments and other structures enable efficient coordination of cellular functions by segregating reactions or protecting fragile intermediates. Here, scientists investigated the the accumulation of carbon and inorganic phosphates in two such organelles, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyphosphate (PP), in Rhodobacter sphaeroides.  

Scientists with the Great lakes Bioenergy Research Center designed NEEDLE, a user-friendly platform to delineate regulatory interactions within plants, and tested it on both known and unknown questions in order to determine its accuracy and usefulness in identifying transcription factors of target genes.

Researchers demonstrated high-yield IBA production from poplar, sorghum, and switchgrass pretreated with a γ-valerolactone (GVL)-based process. They developed a biorefinery where bioenergy crops are pretreated and hydrolysed, and IBA is removed with vacuum flash to avoid toxic IBA concentrations. Using a process optimization model, they performed technoeconomic and sensitivity analyses to estimate production costs and identify potential improvements.

Researchers used microscopy, transcriptome analysis, and gene regulatory network analysis to study nodal root bud initiation and development in bioenergy sorghum hybrids grown at the Texas A&M University Farm. A system of about 175 nodal roots that extend more than 2 meters enable sorghum to absorb water and nutrients while storing carbon in the soil, contributing to the plant's resilience and sustainability as a source of bioenergy.

The trapping of heat energy is a significant driver of global climate change. The absorbent nature of materials, such as asphalt, used for infrastructure can lead to an increase in temperature. When determining the value of various crop systems on our shared future, albedo is an often overlooked aspect of the calculation that may seriously impact climate patterns on this planet. The paper shows that ecosystem types, as well as time of day and season, heavily impact the reflectivity of ground cover types, suggesting that new techniques need to be developed if albedo is to be properly considered in carbon credit programs and future policies. 

Researchers developed facile and reliable genetic tools to target essential or other specific genes in the Alphaproteobacteria Novosphingobium aromaticivorans and Rhodobacter sphaeroides, which show promise as organisms that can be engineered to convert plant lignin and sugars into biofuels and commodity chemicals.