Developments in the Pretreatment of Lignocellulosics for Bioconversion

Report on new developments in biomass pretreatment technologies and configurations to enhance deconstruction of cellulosic biomass to sugars from pretreatment and subsequent operations for fermentation to ethanol and other products. Integrate pretreatment with downstream biological conversion such as by consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) to enhance economics or with subsequent catalytic operations to convert sugars or their breakdown products into fungible fuels. Define pretreatment technologies and operating conditions that reduce enzyme loadings needed to realize high yields of sugars in subsequent hydrolysis operations while preserving sugars in pretreatment. Identify pretreatment processes and conditions that isolate cellulosic biomass fractions (e.g., cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, minerals, and/or protein) for subsequent processing into valuable products. Enhance the understanding of pretreatment operations and how they deconstruct plant cell walls to make biomass accessible to enzymes or conversion by other means.