High-Throughput Screening of Recalcitrance Variations in Lignocellulosic Biomass: Total Lignin, Lignin Monomers, and Enzymatic Sugar Release

Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Visualized Experiments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3791/53163· OSTI ID:1225942

Decker, Stephen R. ^[1]; Sykes, Robert W. ^[1]; Turner, Geoffrey B. ^[1]; Lupoi, Jason S. ^[1]; Doepkke, Crissa ^[1]; Tucker, Melvin P. ^[1]; Schuster, Logan A. ^[1]; Mazza, Kimberly ^[1]; Himmel, Michael E. ^[1]; Davis, Mark F. ^[1]; Gjersing, Erica ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels, chemicals, and other commodities has been explored as one possible pathway toward reductions in the use of non-renewable energy sources. In order to identify which plants, out of a diverse pool, have the desired chemical traits for downstream applications, attributes, such as cellulose and lignin content, or monomeric sugar release following an enzymatic saccharification, must be compared. The experimental and data analysis protocols of the standard methods of analysis can be time-consuming, thereby limiting the number of samples that can be measured. High-throughput (HTP) methods alleviate the shortcomings of the standard methods, and permit the rapid screening of available samples to isolate those possessing the desired traits. This study illustrates the HTP sugar release and pyrolysis-molecular beam mass spectrometry pipelines employed at the National Renewable Energy Lab. These pipelines have enabled the efficient assessment of thousands of plants while decreasing experimental time and costs through reductions in labor and consumables.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1225942
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA--2700-64025
• Journal Information: Journal of Visualized Experiments, Journal Name: Journal of Visualized Experiments Journal Issue: 103; ISSN 1940-087X
• Publisher: MyJoVE Corp.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry
bioenergy
biomass
enzymatic saccharification
glucose
high-throughput screening
pretreatment
sugar release
xylose