Impact of Drought Stress on Sorghum bicolor Yield, Deconstruction, and Microbial Conversion Determined in a Feedstocks-to-Fuels Pipeline

Journal Article · 23 September 2024 · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c05826 · OSTI ID:2476947

Dalton, Jutta C.  ^[1]; Huntington, Tyler ^[1]; Pidatala, Venkataramana ^[1]; Lei, Mengziang ^[2]; Hill, Cayci ^[3]; Angeles, Jorge ^[4]; Putnam, Daniel ^[5]; Dahlberg, Jeff ^[6]; Gladden, John  ^[7]; Simmons, Blake A.  ^[1]; Hutmacher, Robert ^[8]; Scown, Corinne D.  ^[9]; Scheller, Henrik V. ^[10]

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1. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. University of California, Hanford, CA (United States)
4. University of California, Tulare, CA (United States)
5. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
6. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); University of California, Parlier, CA (United States). Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE)
7. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
8. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States); University of California, Parlier, CA (United States). Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE)
9. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy & Biosciences Institute
10. Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sorghum is an attractive feedstock for biobased fuel and chemical production because it is familiar to farmers, naturally drought tolerant, and versatile as a food, feed, and fuel crop. Although sorghum is a promising feedstock, particularly in regions that experience drought stress, little is known about how drought conditions impact the ease of conversion of sorghum to fuels and products. This study combines agronomic field trials with a high-throughput experimental pipeline to explore the field performance and liquid biofuel (bisabolene) yields resulting from three sorghum types (photosensitive forage sorghum, optimized grain sorghum, and drought-resistant grain sorghum) grown under pre- and postflowering water limitations in two different California locations. Multiple drought treatments are compared to the control, as the timing (preflowering versus postflowering) of drought stress elicits different survival strategies and corresponding impacts on yield and composition. Forage-type sorghum maintained the highest biomass yields across all irrigation conditions and locations. Glucose and xylose yields resulting from ionic liquid pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification were not significantly impacted by irrigation treatments but differed by location and genotype. However, Rhodosporidium toruloides grown on the resulting plant hydrolysates unexpectedly produced higher titers of bisabolene for drought-stressed sorghum samples regardless of genotype.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2476947
• Journal Information: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Journal Name: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Journal Issue: 42 Vol. 12; ISSN 2168-0485
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English