I-Corps: Engineering biomass crops for increased yield

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Although the U.S. now leads the world in oil and natural gas production, Americans continue to consume the most and import more petroleum-based fossil fuels than other countries. This reliance on oil has major sociopolitical and environmental effects, i.e., fluctuating gasoline prices, political instability in certain regions, and anthropogenic climate change. Due to these issues, the threat to U.S. national security is high. Thus, there is an urgent need to utilize renewable energies from sources produced here in the U.S. Plant biomass, the most abundant renewable material on Earth, serves as an attractive alternative to petroleum fuels. To meet U.S. energy needs, dedicated biomass energy crops such as sorghum, switchgrass, and miscanthus, must be improved. One approach is to genetically engineer these plants to produce traits leading to higher yields of liquid fuels. This I-Corps team has developed gene technologies that result in higher yielding biomass energy crops well suited for biofuel production. These technologies are ready for commercialization and the goal of this project is to help bring these products to market. Ultimately, this project will help to lessen U.S. dependence on petroleum fuels, cut foreign oil imports, reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil production and consumption and strengthen U.S. national security by helping to establish an alternative resource for U.S. energy needs. Globally, the need for renewable energy made from non-food plant biomass is increasing. Plant lignocellulosic biomass serves is an attractive alternative to the current corn grain and sugarcane feedstocks. Plant cell walls are composed of energy-rich polysaccharide polymers that can be saccharified to produce biofuels and many other bio-based products. This team proposes to test the commercial viability of its technologies through customer-based interviews for analyses of the U.S. biomass feedstock market. The team's goal is to meet with representatives from agricultural biotechnology firms to discuss their needs and discover how our technologies could help meet them. In addition, the team will gain better insight into the biofuels 'value chain' (from feedstock to fuel) to determine the best 'go-to-market' strategy for our gene technologies. Ultimately, the data collected from these interviews will be used to develop a business model towards commercialization of research.