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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

BETO 2021 Peer Review - CAP Process Research

Combined Algal Processing (CAP) is an algae biorefining approach that employs pretreatment and extraction operations to fractionate algal biomass into an organic liquid phase containing lipids, an aqueous hydrolysate phase containing carbohydrates and protein, and a residual solid phase containing insoluble matter. Each of these fractions is upgraded to fuels and/or co-products, including non-isocyanate polyurethanes from unsaturated lipids, fuels from saturated lipids, fuel precursor carboxylic acids from the hydrolysate, and conductive carbons from the solid residue. Techno-economic analysis of multiple CAP configurations suggests that some configurations have a viable pathway to algal biofuels at $2.50/gallon of gasoline equivalent.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Flowthrough Pretreatment of Softwood under Water-only and Alkali Conditions

Flowthrough pretreatment provides valuable insight in the fundamentals of deconstruction of plant biomass. In this study, the potential softwood degradation pathways under water-only and alkali conditions were determined by elucidating the deconstructed biomass-derived products at 0-270 °C for 2-10 min at a flow rate of 25 mL/min with water-only or alkaline at initial pH of 8, 9, 11, and 12, respectively. Results indicated that the initial pH value was a convenient indicator along with the severity parameter to control biomass degradation through the non-oxidative (pH<9) and oxidative (pH=9) pathways. Up to 100 % of hemi-sugars, 90 % of cellulose, and 70 % of lignin were derived from softwood under non-oxidative conditions at severity parameter LogR0 around 5.5, respectively. On the contrary, at pH 12, the oxidative degradation resulted in pretreated hydrolysate rich in monomeric and oligomeric phenolic products as well as glycolic acid, acetic acid, and formic acid from carbohydrates. The two dimensional 1H-13C heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis revealed that non-oxidative degradation at initial pH values lower than 9 mainly cleaved ß-O-4, all of the ß-ß, and ß-5/a-O-4 linkages, whereas substantial aromatic ring structures with limited ß-O-4 structures remaining at pH 12 through oxidative degradation.

Zhang, Libing↗
DOE OSTI2023

Valorization of Hemp-Based Packaging Waste with One-Pot Ionic Liquid Technology

The range of applications for industrial hemp has consistently increased in various sectors over the years. For example, hemp hurd can be used as a resource to produce biodegradable packaging materials when incorporated into a fungal mycelium composite, a process that has been commercialized. Although these packaging materials can be composted after usage, they may present an opportunity for valorization in a biorefinery setting. Here, we demonstrate the potential of using this type of discarded packaging composite as a feedstock for biofuel production. A one-pot ionic liquid-based biomass deconstruction and conversion process was implemented, and the results from the packaging material were compared with those obtained from untreated hemp hurd. At a 120 °C reaction temperature, 7.5% ionic liquid loading, and 2 h reaction time, the packaging materials showed a higher lignocellulosic sugar yield and sugar concentrations than hemp hurd. Hydrolysates prepared from packaging materials also promoted production of higher titers (1400 mg/L) of the jet-fuel precursor bisabolene when used to cultivate an engineered strain of the yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides. Box–Behnken experiments revealed that pretreatment parameters affected the hemp hurd and packaging materials differently, evidencing different degrees of recalcitrance. This study demonstrated that a hemp hurd-based packaging material can be valorized a second time once it reaches the end of its primary use by supplying it as a feedstock to produce biofuels.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Direct Conversion of Delignified Biomass into Non-Volatile Products Using Thermophilic Bacteria

Butyric acid (BA) can be used as a platform intermediate for diesel and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) as well as a precursor for diverse commodity chemicals for the production of polymers, fibers, solvents, and preservatives. This work presents a co-culture-based bioprocess for the production of BA from corn stover by two thermophilic bacteria, Clostridium thermocellum, a well-known efficient degrader of insoluble and oligomeric cellulosic substrates, and Clostridium thermobutyricum, a highly efficient BA producer from monomeric sugars. First, we tested the capability of C. thermocellum to deconstruct three different biomass streams from the NREL pilot plant pretreatment process -raw, deacetylated, and deacetylated and mechanically refined corn stover (DMR)-, and up to 82% solids deconstruction and 91% carbohydrate utilization were obtained when using DMR solids. Then, the sugar utilization and by-product formation capabilities on various substrates by C. thermobutyricum were compared to evaluate its potential as a co-culture partner for C. thermocellum. Model carbon sources -glucose and xylose- were compared to a mixture of substrates present in soluble DMR hydrolysate streams, and the highest cell density as well as the maximum BA titer (8.3 g/L) were observed on DMR hydrolysate. Finally, clostridial co-cultivations on DMR solids were performed to investigate the inoculation time for both organisms that enhances BA production; while C. thermocellum was always inoculated at the beginning of the cultivation, C. thermobutyricum was inoculated at 0, 36, or 72h. It was found that BA production begins immediately upon inoculation of C. thermobutyricum regardless of the inoculation time. However, higher solids deconstruction and carbohydrate utilization results (83.7 and 95.6%, respectively) were obtained when both organisms were inoculated at the beginning of the fermentation. Under those conditions, up to 2.6 g/L of BA were obtained from DMR solids after 120h of cultivation. This work provides relevant information for the sustainable production of BA using thermophilic bacteria.

bacterial co-culture↗
DOE OSTI2021

Visualizing plant cell wall changes proves the superiority of hydrochloric acid over sulfuric acid catalyzed γ-valerolactone pretreatment

Thermochemical pretreatment is one of the key steps to process lignocellulosic biomass for production of biofuels and biomaterials. γ-valerolactone (GVL) has been used as a green and renewable solvent to efficiently dissolve lignin under acidic conditions and enhance subsequent enzyme digestibility. Further improvement is still required to lower the pretreatment temperature in order to reduce sugar degradation and irreversible lignin condensation, as well as the capital cost. In this study, we compared the use of HCl and H 2 SO 4 as catalysts during GVL pretreatment, and found the performance of GVL-HCl at 100 °C was comparable to that of GVL-H 2 SO 4 at 120 °C in terms of xylan and lignin removal and enzyme digestibility. We further monitored the lignin removal and cellulose accessibility in the cell walls at different pretreatment time points by imaging the changes in lignin auto-fluorescence and in CtCBM3-GFP binding with confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), respectively. We found GVL-HCl pretreatment at a relative low temperature (100 °C) could rapidly remove lignin in the compound middle lamella and cell corner areas, which concurred with the increase of CtCBM3-GFP binding in these areas. Real-time imaging of cell wall degradation by cellulases further revealed that the secondary cell walls could be digested from both cell lumen and CML sides, and eventually fully deconstructed within 24 h. Furthermore, our results provide new insight into the effects of chloride anions on plant cell wall structure during GVL pretreatment, and offer potential routes to further optimize and enhance the efficiency of GVL-based pretreatment.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic feedstocks for cellulose nanofibril production

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) have attracted a great deal of research interest in recent years attributable to the low cost and abundance of lignocellulosic biomass from which they can be extracted. These materials have potential applications in a wide array of areas because of their unique properties such as ultra-high aspect ratios and specific strengths. However, the high energy required to extract CNFs from biomass through fibrillation often makes them prohibitively expensive or negates their inherent sustainability. As such, a variety of biomass treatments prior to fibrillation have been investigated by researchers to reduce the energy requirements of CNF extraction, improve the efficacy of biomass fibrillation and subsequent processes, and/or impart functionality in resulting nanofibrils. In this work, both widely used and emerging mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic pretreatments used prior to fibrillation of lignocellulosic biomass for CNF extraction are reviewed. Attention is given to the effect of these various pretreatments on the properties of the resulting CNFs. Finally, the energy consumption in fibrillation processes with and without the use of pretreatments is compared, and future perspectives on challenges and opportunities in lignocellulosic feedstock pretreatments are discussed.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

The importance of ester cleavage in the butylamine pretreatment of hybrid poplar

Butylamine is an effective in-and-out pretreatment solvent for hybrid poplar. It penetrates the cell walls and breaks ester cross-linkages, facilitating lignin release and improving enzymatic digestion. This work explores the “in-and-out” pretreatment of hybrid poplar with butylamine as a distillable protic solvent and reagent. The butylamine solvent can be removed by vacuum distillation with >95% solvent removal in all cases, providing a valuable scheme for efficient solvent recovery and recycling. Running the reaction with neat butylamine at 140 °C for 3 hours results in high yields of monosaccharides (90% glucose and 71% xylose) after enzymatic digestion, and a good tolerance to water content with no significant reduction in glucose yield up to an 8 : 1 water : butylamine ratio. We investigate the mechanisms of this pretreatment using powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, fluorescence microscopy, elemental analysis, solid state and solution state nuclear magnetic spectroscopy to observe chemical and material markers of the pretreatment chemistry. The results suggest that the butylamine leaves the macro and microstructural properties of the lignocellulose relatively unaltered, but conducts targeted ester cleavage chemistry to remove cross-links between the various biopolymers and partially solubilize the lignin component of the biomass. These findings should act to guide future development of pretreatment chemistry for the development of biorefinery processes, and assist in the utilization of biomass as a starting point for chemical syntheses.

Palasz, Joseph M↗
DOE OSTI2020

Recoveries of Oil and Hydrolyzed Sugars from Corn Germ Meal by Hydrothermal Pretreatment: A Model Feedstock for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops

Vegetable oil is extracted from oil rich seeds, such as soybeans. Genetic engineering of green plants to accumulate oil in vegetative tissue is a future source of oil that promises increased land productivity and the use of marginal lands. However, the low concentration of lipids in current engineered plant biomass samples makes the oil extraction process challenging and expensive. In this study, liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment was investigated to enhance oil recovery from the solids and increase enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of such feedstocks. Corn germ meal was chosen as a model feedstock representing lipid-producing energy crops. Germ meal was pretreated at 160 and 180 °C for 10 and 15 min at 20% w/w solids loading. Enzymatic hydrolysis on the pretreated solid was performed. After pretreatment, the oil concentration increased by 2.2 to 4.2 fold. The most severe pretreatment condition of LHW, at 180 °C for 15 min, gave the maximum oil concentration (9.7%, w/w), the highest triacylglycerol (TAG) content of the extracted oil (71.6%), and the highest conversions of glucose and xylose (99.0% and 32.8%, respectively). This study demonstrates that the optimal pretreatment condition for corn germ meal is 180 °C LHW for 15 min. Pretreatment improves lipids recovery from oil bearing biomass with little or no effect on the lipid profile.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Alkali-facilitated deep eutectic solvent for effective bamboo saccharification

In this report, a Na 2 S promoted deep eutectic solvent (DES) was established to reduce the natural recalcitrance of moso bamboo (MB) and improve the subsequent enzymatic saccharification. It was found that the addition of Na 2 S (Choline chloride/Ethylene glycol/Na 2 S) dramatically promoted the deconstructions of lignin with highest removal of 74.67 %, but at the same time preserved glucan and hemicellulose to the maximum extent. With the fractionation, the enzymatic saccharification yield of pretreated MB can reach 100 % under the pretreatment condition of 140 °C, and lignin could be readily recovered with a high yield of 81.47 %. The proposed DES is superior to normal alkaline DES in terms of the higher lignin removal and recovery yield, carbohydrate preservation and enzymatic digestibility, which indicated Na 2 S as a novel and powerful reinforcer enhancing the DES fractionation efficiency.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Redefining the product portfolio of oilcane bagasse biorefinery: Recovering natural colorants, vegetative lipids and sugars

Bioenergy crops have been known for their ability to produce biofuels and bioproducts. In this study, the product portfolio of recently developed transgenic sugarcane (oilcane) bagasse has been redefined for recovering natural pigments (anthocyanins), sugars, and vegetative lipids. The total anthocyanin content in oilcane bagasse has been estimated as 92.9 ± 18.9 µg/g of dried bagasse with cyanidin-3-glucoside (13.5 ± 18.9 µg per g of dried bagasse) as the most prominent anthocyanin present. More than 85 % (w/w) of the total anthocyanins were recovered from oilcane bagasse at a pretreatment temperature of 150 °C for 15 min. These conditions for the hydrothermal pretreatment also led to a 2-fold increase in the glucose yield upon the enzymatic saccharification of the pretreated bagasse. Further, a 1.5-fold enrichment of the vegetative lipids was demonstrated in the pretreated residue. Re-defining green biorefineries with multiple high-value products in a zero-waste approach is the need of the hour for attaining sustainability.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A miniaturized feedstocks-to-fuels pipeline for screening the efficiency of deconstruction and microbial conversion of lignocellulosic biomass

Sustainably grown biomass is a promising alternative to produce fuels and chemicals and reduce the dependency on fossil energy sources. However, the efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and bioproducts often requires extensive testing of components and reaction conditions used in the pretreatment, saccharification, and bioconversion steps. This restriction can result in a significant and unwieldy number of combinations of biomass types, solvents, microbial strains, and operational parameters that need to be characterized, turning these efforts into a daunting and time-consuming task. Here we developed a high-throughput feedstocks-to-fuels screening platform to address these challenges. The result is a miniaturized semi-automated platform that leverages the capabilities of a solid handling robot, a liquid handling robot, analytical instruments, and a centralized data repository, adapted to operate as an ionic-liquid-based biomass conversion pipeline. The pipeline was tested by using sorghum as feedstock, the biocompatible ionic liquid cholinium phosphate as pretreatment solvent, a “one-pot” process configuration that does not require ionic liquid removal after pretreatment, and an engineered strain of the yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides that produces the jet-fuel precursor bisabolene as a conversion microbe. By the simultaneous processing of 48 samples, we show that this configuration and reaction conditions result in sugar yields (~70%) and bisabolene titers (~1500 mg/L) that are comparable to the efficiencies observed at larger scales but require only a fraction of the time. We expect that this Feedstocks-to-Fuels pipeline will become an effective tool to screen thousands of bioenergy crop and feedstock samples and assist process optimization efforts and the development of predictive deconstruction approaches.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2000

Ozonation and alkaline-peroxide pretreatment of wheat straw for Cryptococcus curvatus fermentation

Crop residues in an Advanced Life Support System (ALS) contain many valuable components that could be recovered and used. Wheat is 60% inedible, with approximately 90% of the total sugars in the residue cellulose and hemicellulose. To release these sugars requires pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. Cryptococcus curvatus, an oleaginous yeast, uses the sugars in cellulose and hemicellulose for growth and production of storage triglycerides. In this investigation, alkaline-peroxide and ozonation pretreatment methods were compared for their efficiency to release glucose and xylose to be used in the cultivation of C. curvatus. Leaching the biomass with water at 65 degrees C for 4 h prior to pretreatment facilitated saccharification. Alkaline-peroxide and ozone pretreatment were almost 100% and 80% saccharification efficient, respectively. The sugars derived from the hydrolysis of alkaline-peroxide-treated wheat straw supported the growth of C. curvatus and the production of edible single-cell oil.

Non-NASA Center↗
DOE OSTI2021

Overexpression of the rice BAHD acyltransferase AT10 increases xylan-bound p-coumarate and reduces lignin in Sorghum bicolor

Abstract Background The development of bioenergy crops with reduced recalcitrance to enzymatic degradation represents an important challenge to enable the sustainable production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts. Biomass recalcitrance is partly attributed to the complex structure of plant cell walls inside which cellulose microfibrils are protected by a network of hemicellulosic xylan chains that crosslink with each other or with lignin via ferulate (FA) bridges. Overexpression of the rice acyltransferase OsAT10 is an effective bioengineering strategy to lower the amount of FA involved in the formation of cell wall crosslinks and thereby reduce cell wall recalcitrance. The annual crop sorghum represents an attractive feedstock for bioenergy purposes considering its high biomass yields and low input requirements. Although we previously validated the OsAT10 engineering approach in the perennial bioenergy crop switchgrass, the effect of OsAT10 expression on biomass composition and digestibility in sorghum remains to be explored. Results We obtained eight independent sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) transgenic lines with a single copy of a construct designed for OsAT10 expression. Consistent with the proposed role of OsAT10 in acylating arabinosyl residues on xylan with p -coumarate ( p CA), a higher amount of p -coumaroyl-arabinose was released from the cell walls of these lines upon hydrolysis with trifluoroacetic acid. However, no major changes were observed regarding the total amount of p CA or FA esters released from cell walls upon mild alkaline hydrolysis. Certain diferulate (diFA) isomers identified in alkaline hydrolysates were increased in some transgenic lines. The amount of the main cell wall monosaccharides glucose, xylose, and arabinose was unaffected. The transgenic lines showed reduced lignin content and their biomass released higher yields of sugars after ionic liquid pretreatment followed by enzymatic saccharification. Conclusions Expression of OsAT10 in sorghum leads to an increase of xylan-bound p CA without reducing the overall content of cell wall FA esters. Nevertheless, the amount of total cell wall p CA remains unchanged indicating that most p CA is ester-linked to lignin. Unlike other engineered plants overexpressing OsAT10 or a phylogenetically related acyltransferase with similar putative function, the improvements of biomass saccharification efficiency in sorghum OsAT10 lines are likely the result of lignin reductions rather than reductions of cell wall-bound FA. These results also suggest a relationship between xylan-bound p CA and lignification in cell walls.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Methods and systems for biological coal-to-biofuels and bioproducts

Methods and systems for the biological conversion of pretreated or solubilized coal or waste coal into biofuels. Coal (10) may be pretreated perhaps in a pretreatment reactor (13). Pretreated coal or even solubilized coal may be introduced into a processing reactor such as a bioreactor (16) containing a plurality of microorganisms (9) such as oleaginous microorganisms which can convert at least some of the pretreated or solubilized coal into lipids (19) or biomass (18), which then may be used directly or as a precursor for various products such as biofuels, feedstock, or the like.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

NREL's Capabilities in Organism Development and Fermentation Sciences Research and Development (R&D)

NREL is developing robust microbial strains and scalable fermentation technologies for converting biomass sugars to fuels and biochemicals, and one-carbon (C1) gaseous substrates (e.g., CO2, CO, CH4) to high-value products. Core capabilities include: (1) Fermentation optimization of aerobic, microaerophilic, and anaerobic cultivation processes of gas and traditional liquid fermentation R&D; (2) Gas mass transfer R&D and CFD modeling for improved reactor design and gas mixing (3) Metabolic engineering in CRISPR editing tools to improve titer, rates, and yields; (4) Probing and optimizing carbon, redox, and energy flux using transcriptomics and fluxomic techniques; and (5) Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) using cellulose and hemicellulose directly to minimize pretreatment.

BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES,BIOMASS FUELS,SYNTHETIC ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of chemical composition and physicochemical properties of poplar biomass on the performance of 3D printed poplar-reinforced PLA materials

Lignocellulosic biomass has been well-acknowledged as a filler for making 3D printed composites. The technical performances of composites were influenced by the characteristics of the components. The correlations between poplar biomass properties and the mechanical and thermal performances of the 3D printed poplar-plastic composites were investigated. The characteristics of poplar were modified by different pretreatment methods, including using hot water, dilute acid, and organic solvent (organosolv), and each treated poplar biomass was applied as a filler in a polylactic acid (PLA) polymer matrix to produce eco-friendly materials. These solvent pretreatments increased the hydrophobicity and surface area of poplar. Organosolv treated poplar showed the highest cellulose content and significantly increased Young's modulus of its biocomposites. Principal component analysis revealed that the specific surface area and water contact angle of biomass contributed to the thermal stability of biocomposites. Additionally, the degree of polymerization of cellulose and xylan content within the biomass correlated with the biocomposites' break stress. Notably, the crystallinity of biocomposites impacted the modulus of these materials. The reported relationships between biomass characteristics and 3D printed composite behaviors provide guidance for optimizing biomass processing in biocomposite applications.

Ji, Anqi [State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Syracuse↗
DOE OSTI2022

The bamboo delignification saturation point in alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment and its association with enzymatic hydrolysis

A delignification saturation point (DSP) was observed for bamboo alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment (AHP). Lignin removal was increased from 52.23% to ~70% when increasing H 2 O 2 dosage from 0% to 2% at the optimum pH, but it cannot be further reinforced as increasing the H 2 O 2 . With partial lignin preserved, the glucan hydrolysis yield was found to have a ceiling of ~80%. This work indicated a strong association between enzymatic digestibility and lignin removal. Anatomical analysis by fluorescence microscope and confocal Raman microscope revealed that the undegradable lignin was mainly existing in the cell corner of sclerenchyma fibers, causing the DSP in the bamboo AHP. Finally, the residual lignin in pretreated bamboo was characterized with GPC, HSQC NMR, and 31 P NMR, which revealed the nature of DSP. This study could help to understand the lignin modification during the AHP and further contribute to the establishment of a chemical-saving biorefinery.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗