Poster's note : many interesting articles summarised here. I will not be sending them all to the list
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/biot.201500291/full Bioenergy and biorefinery – biological solution for sustainable development of human society Yinbo Qu and Wen-Teng Wu 5 JUN 2015 DOI: 10.1002/biot.201500291 Biotechnology Journal Special Issue: Bioenergy and biorefinery Volume 10, Issue 6, pages 823–824, June 2015 The world is facing more and more severe challenges in energy supply and environmental pollution since 21st century, especially in Asia, which threaten to the sustainable development of human society. As a part of the effort to overcome these problems, bioenergy and biorefinery research has been deeply concerned. In August of 2014, the members of AFOB (Asian Federation of Biotechnology) Bioenergy and Biorefinery Division gathered together in Shandong University (Jinan, China) where they had the “Annual meeting and bioenergy and biorefinery summit” to discuss the latest progress in the area. The meeting had a special focus on biofuel and biochemical production from nonfood biomass resources, and with an aim to strengthen the communication and collaboration of scientists from both academy and industry in Asia. This Special issue compiles a sampling of the outcomes of this meeting. Several lecturers were invited to contribute to this issue, in which we are exploring cutting-edge research in the field of bioenergy and biorefinery. What the world needs are sustainable, affordable, reliable, and available technologies to meet the expectations for our future. The first challenge for development of bioenergy and biorefinery is the bountiful supply of non-food biomass feedstock. In addition to the residues from agriculture and forest, planting energy crops in marginal lands may be one of the optimal choices for increasing feedstock supply. Lee and Kuan[1] suggest that the species of Miscanthus are potential feedstocks for biofuels because of the promising high yields of biomass per unit of planted area. The species, cultivation, and lignocellulose composition of Miscanthus, as well as pretreatment and enzyme saccharification of Miscanthus biomass for ethanol fermentation are addressed in this article [1]. Pretreatment is a key unit operation to overcome the recalcitrance affecting the biorefinery efficiency of plant biomass. Chen and Liu [2] analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the method of steam explosion and its combinatorial pretreatment technology in this issue. Several pilot- and demonstration-scale operations of the plant biomass refinery are described as well. As the main waste product of palm oil production, empty fruit bunch (EFB) from oil palm is resistant to be hydrolyzed by enzymes, Tan et al. [3] report that bisulfite pretreatment is an effective method for improving the enzymatic hydrolysis of EFB for bioethanol production. Their results demonstrate that the changes in the structure and properties of EFB provide insight into the benefits of bisulfite pretreatment. Improving the efficiency of enzymes or fermentative microorganisms is another important task for biotechnologists. Gao et al. [4] find that not only the structure of catalyst and cellulose binding domains, but also the linker length and flexibility can affect the activity of cellobiohydrolase PoCel6A from Penicillium oxalicum. It shows a new way to modify the function of cellulases. Liu et al.[5] review current progress of targetron technology for development, improvement and application in metabolic engineering. The flexibility, feasibility, and efficiency of the technique are particularly suitable for the genetic engineering of cellulolytic bacteria that are considered promising candidates for biomass conversion via consolidated bioprocessing. The cultivation of photosynthetic microorganisms, such as microalgae and cyanobacteria, is another hot topic for bioenergy and biorefinery research. The microalgae are not only being investigated as alternative biomass resources for advanced biofuels or biochemicals production, owing to their high-photosynthetic activity and whole-year cultivation without utilization of arable land, but also for their environmental benefits, such as CO2 fixation and NOx and SOx removal from flue gas. Yen et al. [6] contribute a review in this issue. The microalgal biomass would become a suitable feedstock to produce biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Not only the lipids produced by microalgae, but the α-glucans, such as glycogen and starch, can also be produced by microalgae and cyanobacteria and be used as carbon sources for microbial fermentation. The enhancement of a-glucan productivity via cultivation design and metabolic engineering is reviewed by Aikawa et al. [7]. Since feasible alternatives to fishmeal are also urgently required, Chen et al. [8] report their progresses on aquaculture protein production by indigenous microalgae. An innovative photobioreactor (PBR) utilizing cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) as an internal light source is designed, and Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E appears to be a viable alternative protein source for the aquaculture industry. Recently, oil prices plunged against the industrialization of bioenergy and biorefinery, however, the scientists from USA, EU and UK have just published three new industrial biotechnology roadmaps [9–11], which paint a wonderful prospect for us. We are looking forward to promoting faster development of bioenergy and biorefinery industry through our own hard work -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
