Monday, April 29, 2013
Exhibit Hall
Softwood represents the most recalcitrant lignocellulosic biomass feedstock for pretreatment to release sugars for fuel and chemical production. An understanding of the genetic control of biomass recalcitrance in softwood species will provide a breakthrough in selection and improving biomass feedstock for fuel and chemicals conversion. In this study, a high throughput method was developed and applied to determine the biomass recalcitrance of over 150 Douglas fir phenotypes. This HTP method consists of three steps to determine: 1) total extractives, carbohydrate and lignin contents in the biomass, 2) the susceptibility of biomass to different deconstruction methods, 3) the hydrolysability of resulting substrates by cellulase enzymes. Wood samples from 40+ Douglas fir families collected from different plantation sites were tested. A significant genotypic variation in biomass composition and their susceptibility to pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis was found among these Douglas fir phenotypes.