SBIR Phase I: Overcoming the Recalcitrance of Cellulose

该SBIR第一阶段项目将测试和开发通过在纳米级水平上提供酶对纤维素纤维的可及性来增强纤维素向葡萄糖转化的概念。 该项目解决了目前在从纤维素生物量生产生物燃料方面存在的严重缺陷。 目的是增加纤维素和淀粉的解聚，以便随后可以使用酶以比目前可能的更大程度降解。 这一“预处理”过程将提高淀粉和纤维素转化为单糖的速度，并提高厌氧甲烷生产率，该项目的更广泛/商业影响将包括创造一种预处理方法，从而能够克服目前在生物降解和将纤维素和淀粉（生物质）转化为生物燃料方面的限制。 从长远来看，这可以使生物燃料更容易获得，使用更广泛的残余生物质作为原料。 很可能来自纤维素的葡萄糖在生产生物燃料（乙醇和高级醇）方面将变得与基于玉米淀粉的葡萄糖具有经济竞争力。 这项技术可以生产纤维素生物燃料，其孵化时间与目前的淀粉基生产方法相当。

This SBIR Phase I project will test and develop the concept of enhancing the conversion of cellulose to glucose by providing the accessibility of the enzymes to the cellulose fibers at the nanoscale level. The project addresses a serious deficiency that currently exists in bio-fuels production from cellulose-based biomass. The goal is to increase the disaggregation of cellulose and starch so that it can be subsequently degraded using enzymes to a greater degree than presently possible. This "pre-treatment" process will allow enhanced conversion of starch and cellulose to simple sugars and allow for higher rates of anaerobic methane production.The broader/commercial impact of the project will include creation of a pre-treatment approach leading to the ability to overcome a current limitation in the biodegradation and conversion of cellulose and starch (biomass) to bio-fuels. This could make bio-fuels more available in the longer term using a wider variety of residual biomass as feed stocks. It is likely that glucose from cellulose would become economically competitive with corn starch based glucose for production of bio-fuels, both ethanol and higher alcohols. This technology could produce cellulosic bio-fuels with an incubation time comparable to current starch-based production methods.