Section of a sugarcane root degrading its own cellular wall, with large cavities surrounding the central cylinder (photo: personal archive)

Book presents the main scientific advances in bioenergy
2014-02-19

Plants and Bioenergy is the fruit of an eponymous event that was held in São Pedro, São Paulo, in 2010.

Book presents the main scientific advances in bioenergy

Plants and Bioenergy is the fruit of an eponymous event that was held in São Pedro, São Paulo, in 2010.

2014-02-19

Section of a sugarcane root degrading its own cellular wall, with large cavities surrounding the central cylinder (photo: personal archive)

 

By Karina Toledo

Agência FAPESP – Overcoming the century-long global dependence on oil is a challenge that will require a new research paradigm for bioenergy in the 21st century. With the objectives of contributing to this undertaking and of offering a panorama of the recent scientific advances achieved in the Americas, the publishing house Springer has released Plants and Bioenergy.

The book is the fruit of an eponymous event that was held in São Pedro, São Paulo, in 2010 under the coordination of Marcos Silveira Buckeridge, a Universidade de São Paulo professor and coordinator of the National Institute of Science and Technology of Bioethanol. The institute is one of the national science centers (INCTs) funded by FAPESP.

Buckeridge shared the tasks of editing the book and organizing the event with Maureen McCann and Nicholas Carpita, both from Purdue University, in the United States.

“In 2008, we held the first Pan-American Congress on Plants and Bioenergy in Mexico, with the objective of supporting scientific collaboration in the area. From there, the event became bi-annual. The second was held in Brazil; the third, in the United States; and in July 2014, it will be held in Canada,” commented Buckeridge.

The 2008 congress resulted in the book Routes to Cellulosic Ethanol, focused solely on studies related to second-generation ethanol production and launched by Springer in 2010.

The goal of the second book in the series, however, is to provide a broader summary of studies related to bioenergy, covering everything from related political and economic issues to genetic studies to improve crops, such as sorghum, and biomass processing methods.

“Although the focus continues to be Brazil and the United States – the two strongest American countries in bioenergy – we attempted to give a global outlook on the theme. To this end, we also invited European researchers to write some chapters, including Jeremy Woods, from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom,” explained Buckeridge. The authors include, among others, Michael Casler (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Bruce E. Dale (Michigan State University), David Zilberman (University of California), Harry Gilbert (Newcastle University), Joseph Bozell (University of Tennessee), Antonio Salatino (USP) and José Goldemberg (USP).

The first part of the work, entitled “The Bioenergy Economy,” discusses topics such as sustainable land use and the potential competition between food production and bioenergy. This section also covers future prospects for first-generation ethanol and the political uncertainties related to the second generation. Additionally, this section addresses the cultivation of algae to produce both biofuel and other bioproducts.

“The Biology of Biomass” is the theme of the second part of the book, which includes genetic studies focused on transforming plants such as sorghum, camelina or trees of the Salix genus (weeping willows) into commercially viable alternatives to sugarcane and corn for ethanol production.

“There are also chapters that deal with the mechanism of the biosynthesis of polysaccharides, such as cellulose and xylan. There are key tools for the manipulation of the biomass of these and other plants used for bioenergy,” commented Buckeridge.

The third and last part of the book, entitled “Processing Biomass,” covers both studies on enzymes and pre-treatments focused on degrading the cellular wall and opening biomass to make cellulosic ethanol production possible. The use of biomass in biorefineries to obtain high value-added chemical compounds is also described.

The chapter written by Buckeridge – along with Adriana Grandis, Amanda Pereira de Souza and Eveline Tavares, all of USP – describes the key mechanism naturally used by plants to degrade the cell wall in situations such as the shedding of leaves and flowers, the maturation of fruit and defense against microorganisms.

“There is a common mechanism that, with small variations, is used by several plants in varied situations. We performed a review of naturally produced enzymes that degrade the cellular wall. Our intention is to use this knowledge to activate the natural hydrolysis system. That way, we can diminish or even forego pre-treatment for biomass processing,” affirmed Buckeridge.

The results presented by Buckeridge are the fruit of studies conducted under the auspices of the Bioethanol INCT and Regular Research Grants funded by FAPESP.

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