| Investigators | Charles Wyman, Charles Cai, Rajeev Kumar |
| Project Sponsor | Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| Project Period | July 2018 - June 2023 |
Abstract
UC-Riverside (Seller) is supporting the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) in the research target area of cotreatment and pretreatment CBP enhancement.
The Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) is accelerating domestication of bioenergy-relevant, non-model plants and microbes to enable high-impact innovations at multiple points in the bioenergy supply chain. Conceived to foster a legacy of fundamental scientific understanding, enabling capabilities, and transformative innovations, CBI has identified research targets to overcome key barriers for the current bioeconomy in (1) high-yielding, robust feedstocks, (2) lower capital and processing costs via consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) to specialty biofuels, and (3) methods to create valuable byproducts from the lignin residues.
With our experiential understanding of plant cell wall structure and fundamental genomics, the CBI team is accelerating progress toward the identification and utilization of key plant genes for growth, yield, composition, and sustainability traits as a means of lowering feedstock costs and improving year-round feedstock supplies. Building on experience in CBP (a one-step deconstruction and conversion process without added enzymes), we are focusing on specialty biofuels (i.e., C4 alcohols and esters) that can be derived anaerobically in a few steps from central metabolism and that have proven fuel value. Combinations of CBP with cotreatment (i.e., milling during fermentation) and pretreatment will be tested and evaluated with respect to deconstruction efficacy, lignin valorization, and economic viability.
We are also addressing the fundamental and broadly enabling science questions that arise in domesticating new CBP microbes. Rapid domestication of new industrial microorganisms via genome editing will provide the foundation for a promising and relatively unexplored branch of biotechnology applicable to many aspects of the bioeconomy. We are maximizing process and product value through research on in planta modifications of lignin and through biological funneling of lignin to large-market, value-added chemicals (i.e., lignin valorization).
New and agile technoeconomic analyses (TEA) will be used to evaluate CBI progress toward overcoming current industrial barriers. The results will be used to focus and align CBI research endeavors, accelerating the development of improvements across the entire biorefinery supply chain, from sustainable high-yielding feedstocks to robust, high-yield CBP-based platforms for specialty biofuels and lignin products.