FAPESP and BBSRC invest £5 million in advanced biofuels research

Projects selected through this joint call for proposals will develop novel routes for the production of biofuels from non-conventional feedstocks, as well as high-value chemicals.

By Elton Alisson  |  Agência FAPESP – FAPESP and the United Kingdom’s Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will jointly invest £5 m to support two research projects designed to lead to the production of advanced biofuels (obtained from non-conventional feedstocks such as sugarcane bagasse and straw) and high-value chemicals.

The projects were selected following a call for proposals issued concurrently by both institutions in 2015. Applicants formally affiliated with higher education or research institutions in São Paulo State, Brazil, and the UK were required to submit proposals for collaborative research projects lasting three to five years.

FAPESP will invest the equivalent of £1.5 m, and BBSRC will invest £3.5 m to fund the two collaborative research projects based on different approaches to biorefineries, industrial complexes that produce fuel, electricity and chemicals from biomass.

The amount that FAPESP will dedicate to these two projects is among the largest ever invested in a joint call and is justified by the scientific and technological challenges these projects pose.

Among these challenges are enzyme design and development to scale up the processing of cellulosic biomass, optimization of feedstock attributes and their effects on production and processing of advanced biofuels and high-value chemicals, development of high-yielding fermentative organisms, and exploration of the industrial and commercial feasibility of new technological routes.

The principal investigators for one of the selected projects are Telma Teixeira Franco, who heads the University of Campinas’s Interdisciplinary Energy Planning Center (NIPE-UNICAMP), and Professor David Leak of the University of Bath, England. Their project will explore new techniques for the conversion of complex carbohydrates in plant biomass, such as cellulose and hemicellulose, to produce second-generation biofuels and high-value chemicals using less energy and fewer resources. 

Cellulose and hemicellulose, the main structural elements in plant cell walls, are cemented together by lignin, an amorphous polymer that imparts rigidity, water impermeability and strength to plant tissues. 

Lignin must be removed from crop residues such as cane bagasse and straw, sweet sorghum, hulls, grasses and forestry wastes before the carbohydrates in these feedstocks – cellulose and hemicellulose – can be converted into sugars for fermentation to produce bioethanol. 

The processes currently used for this purpose – such as delignification with separation of the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions (known as pretreatment), and acid and enzymatic hydrolysis – are complex and low-yield, with a negative net energy balance and high production costs. 

During their project, the Brazilian and British researchers plan to assess new technologies such as cellulose breakdown, in which the molecular structure of cane bagasse and straw, sweet sorghum or eucalyptus residues is broken down into simpler, more soluble sugars for conversion into second-generation biofuels by the action of microorganisms.

“We want to evaluate a pretreatment process that we’ve developed and that’s very different from the processes in use today,” Franco told Agência FAPESP. “Our process avoids contamination by bacteria during the sugar fermentation stage to obtain not just second-generation ethanol but also other advanced biofuels such as biodiesel and aviation biokerosene.”

The researchers also plan to develop a new fermentation process, as well as novel types of fermentative microorganisms and specific enzymes for the treatment of cane bagasse and straw, sweet sorghum and eucalyptus residues.

The project will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at Aberystwyth University and Imperial College London in the UK.

“Between the UK and Brazil we have assembled an excellent team that meets the requirements and is well placed to address the scientific challenges involved. We are keen to get started and excited about the possibilities that this partnership brings,” Leak said in a statement released by the University of Bath. 

The second research project selected via the call for proposals concerns lignin valorization in cellulosic ethanol plants, focusing on biocatalytic conversion to high-value chemicals via ferulic acid. 

The project will be led by Fábio Squina, a researcher at Brazil’s National Bioethanol Science & Technology Laboratory (CTBE), which belongs to the National Energy & Materials Research Center (CNPEM) in Campinas, São Paulo State, and Professor Timothy D.H. Bugg of the University of Warwick, England. 

Lignin is nature's second most abundant polymer after cellulose. Its current applications are mostly limited to its use as fuel and as an energy source for biotechnology.

Through the project, researchers from CTBE and the University of Warwick, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Manchester and University College London in the UK, will develop novel biosensors to be used in engineering recombinant microorganisms capable of breaking down lignin into high-value chemicals.

“Our aim is to develop new methods to valorize lignin via intermediate ferulic acid,” Squina said. “This organic compound, found in the leaves and seeds of plants such as corn, rice, wheat and oats, is a powerful anti-oxidant. It’s already used by the cosmetics industry but we plan to develop novel processes for its conversion into high-value drugs and chemicals as well as fragrances, pharmaceutical components and aromas.”

During the project, the researchers also aim to integrate biotechnological processes for lignin valorization with the production of cellulosic bioethanol.

“This integration of biotech processes can contribute to the development of sustainable cellulosic biorefineries,” Squina said.

Fruitful partnership

FAPESP’s partnership with BBSRC started in 2009. BBSRC is one of seven government-funded research councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK). 

Since then, the two institutions, along with Brazil’s National Council of State Research Funding Agencies (CONFAP), have issued a joint Newton Fund call for virtual research centers on agricultural nitrogen.

FAPESP and BBSRC also have a pump-priming awards arrangement under which UK researchers can submit proposals involving collaboration with researchers affiliated with institutions in São Paulo State to BBSRC at any time, and they have another arrangement to foster short-term scientific collaboration.

Referring to the joint call to support projects in advanced biofuels research, Steve Visscher, BBSRC Deputy Chief Executive – International, said: “This joint call, led by FAPESP, demonstrates the strength of the BBSRC-FAPESP relationship and builds upon longstanding collaborations between UK and Brazilian scientists. This investment demonstrates BBSRC’s continued commitment to Bioenergy as one of our strategic priorities, and the benefits of working with global partners to address its challenges.”

The call for proposals was the first issued jointly by FAPESP and the UK’s research councils in which the entire process of peer review and scientific merit analysis was conducted by FAPESP. 

For Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s Scientific Director, the approved projects address one of today’s most important challenges in the production of bioenergy. “The FAPESP-BBSRC call mobilizes scientific collaboration to study bioenergy, which is extremely relevant for Brazil,” he said. “The two projects selected, each led by a pair of leading scientists from São Paulo and the UK, address one of the most important challenges in bioenergy production today, namely the use of lignocellulosic material to produce valuable chemicals and liquid fuel.”