Research Highlights
Great Lakes Bioenergy researchers and collaborators engineered softwoods to incorporate a key feature of hardwoods. The resulting pine (shown here) processes more easily into pulp and paper.
Great Lakes Bioenergy research consistently results in new discoveries and new technologies. Here, we highlight high-impact research from all three of our research areas.
Computational modeling speeds solvent selection for biomass-to-product pipeline
Reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) is a promising technique to transform lignin into monomers and oligomers that can be biologically upgraded to high-value products. The choice of solvent affects nearly all aspects of the process. This work evaluated a pipeline using RCF of poplar biomass followed by biological funneling with Novosphingobium aromaticivorans to 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), a potential bioplastic precursor, using six pure solvents and variations of aqueous mixtures.
Energy efficient efflux pumps exhibit broader substrate profiles
Engineering membrane transporters to recognize and remove lignocellulosic inhibitors could improve advanced biorefinery productivity. Data generated for this project are being used to train artificial intelligence models to predict which mutations are most likely to be effective.
Switchgrass and miscanthus long-term yield patterns reveal productivity declines
Researchers analyzed over 200 plantings of switchgrass and miscanthus at 12 sites across Michigan and Wisconsin with data spanning 5 to 15 years. Farm-to-gate economic analysis identified the most profitable rotations and economic relevance of fertilization.
One-pot RCF process lowers cost of upgrading biomass to high-value products
Building on previous work evaluating stepwise processing, this study considers an integrated lignin-first biorefinery design that replaces the gamma-valerolactone (GVL) fractionation and hydrogenolysis with a single reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) step and considers how the lignin and carbohydrate fractions would be utilized.
Independent chemical genomics approaches predict targets for increasing chemical tolerance
Scientists screened genome-scale CRISPRi (CRISPR interference) and TnSeq (transposon insertion sequencing) libraries of the Alphaproteobacterium Zymomonas mobilis against growth inhibitors commonly found in deconstructed biomass. By integrating the data from the complementary techniques they established an approach for defining engineering targets with high specificity.
Drought timing affects switchgrass metabolism, biofuel yields
Switchgrass is a promising bioenergy crop, due in part to its resilience to drought stress, but there is limited information on how drought affects metabolite profiles across developmental stages, in particular the distinction between core and developmentally specific physiological and metabolic drought responses. So researchers subjected plants to four watering treatments at specific developmental stages and measured the impact on growth and downstream ethanol yields.
Switchgrass steroidal saponins that reduce fungal disease in the field inhibit yeast fermentation
Scientists measured variation in field fungal infection, specialized metabolite production, and fermentation efficiency in 102 genotypes of switchgrass and investigated methods for rescuing fermentation for poorly fermenting lines.
Engineered accumulation of protocatechuate in corn biomass can enhance biomanufacturing
Protocatechuate (DHBA) serves as a precursor for a wide range of valuable bioproducts. Crops can accumulate DHBA via expression of dehydroshikimate dehydratase (QsuB). This experiment sought to overproduce DHBA in plant biomass for downstream biological upgrading.
Cu-catalyzed oxidation cleaves C–C bonds in lignin-derived oligomers for biological funneling
Most methods for lignin deconstruction cleave carbon–oxygen bonds, resulting in suboptimal yields of aromatic monomers and formation of oligomers with intact carbon–carbon bonds that limit the yield of valorized products. This work demonstrates a copper-catalyzed aerobic oxidation process that converts oligomeric “waste” derived from reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) of woody biomass into aromatic monomers. The resulting monomers are used as feedstock for biological funneling into bioproducts.
Systems-level analysis can improve aromatic funneling by N. aromaticivorans and other bacteria
Researchers performed a systems-level analysis of a LysR-family transcription factor in Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, which could inform engineering of commercially relevant bacteria that can remove toxic aromatics or metabolize them into industrial chemicals.
