(250b) Genetically Modified Biomass: Effect of Single Gene Modifications On the Composition of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oils

It has been premised that lignocellulosic biomass is the 
main renewable energy resources  available here on earth and con be considered
as one of few sources that can provide renewable liquid, gaseous and solid
fuels. In contrast to fossil fuels, the use of biomass for energy renders
significant environmental advantages. Plant growth needed to generate biomass
feedstocks removes atmospheric carbon dioxide, which offsets the increase in
atmospheric carbon dioxide that results from biomass fuel combustion.

One promising and clean way to acquire bio-oil is by the
fast pyrolysis of biomass, which is considered as a network of rich
hemicellulose and cellulose bound by lignin. This process is carried out in the
absence of oxygen, or when significantly less oxygen is present than required
for complete combustion, and at elevated temperatures, thus yielding in gaseous
products, liquids (bio-oil and water) and solid charcoal. The bio-oil contains
a broad range of organic chemicals; hence they offer the potential to be used
as an energy carrier, or as a renewable raw material for the chemical industry for
the production of high-value chemicals and liquid biofuels. The valorization of
the phenolics as building blocks or new synthetic bioplastics,
phenol-formaldehyde resins or epoxy- or polyurethane materials,.. are some of
the many possible applications. Another possibility is to use the bio-oil as a refinery
feedstock for the production of the much needed biofuels. This requires
upgrading via hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) with hydrogen over CoMo or NiMo
catalysts, which nevertheless imposes some other challenges that need to be
overcome.

However, realizing those potential applications requires
having the control over the chemical composition of the bio-oil. Thus the right
type of biomass and the pyrolysis conditions should be selected. In short, to
understand and to be able to predict the pyrolysis behavior, it is essential to
understand the kinetics of the thermal reactions that are involved in the
decomposition of biomass. Up to now, the goal of the fast pyrolysis process was
limited to convert as much biomass as possible to liquid bio-oil, neglecting
the effect(s) of the biomass composition and/or the process conditions on the bio-oil
composition. Therefore in this presentation the role of feed and process
conditions is extensively investigated on the bio-oil composition. Both
pyrolysis GC as well as pilot plant data will be discussed of more than 20
different genetically modified biomass feeds. Single gene modifications of Arabidopsis
and poplar have been evaluated and the effect of these modifications on the
biomass composition and produced bio-oil has been evaluated. This requires a
comprehensive set of analytical techniques such as comprehensive 2D GC and LC
to unravel the complexity of both feed and product.