Identifying, characterising and engineering plant cell wall degrading enzymes for biofuel production

作为一种能源，世界上的化石燃料资源在世界各地正在枯竭，成为绿色家庭气体排放的主要贡献者。因此，供应世界能源需求的更清洁和更绿色的战略变得越来越紧迫。从生物质生产生物燃料（来源于废物，即，废谷物、来源于林业/造纸等的材料）是一种生产排放量更低的绿色能源的方法，为应对世界能源需求提供了一种战略。废弃生物质由碳水化合物分子纤维素和半纤维素构成，为生物燃料生产提供了来源。从这些废料生产生物燃料需要物理和/或化学预处理，以在糖化发生之前通过用碳水化合物活性酶（CAZymes）处理来引发碳水化合物材料的分解。然后，将提供的单糖发酵成合适的生物燃料产品，包括乙醇和丁醇。该项目中使用的CAZymes将来自嗜热细菌物种，找到合适的“酶鸡尾酒”将碳水化合物加工成简单的单糖进行发酵。

The world's fossil fuel resources are being depleted around the world as an energy source, becoming a major contributor to green house gas emissions. Therefore, cleaner, and greener strategies to supply the worlds energy demands are becoming more and more pressing. The production of biofuels from biomass (sourced from waste products, i.e., spent grain, materials sourced from forestry/paper productions etc.) is a way to produce a greener energy with lower emissions, providing a strategy to combat the worlds energy demand. The waste biomass is built out of the carbohydrate molecules cellulose and hemicellulose, providing a source for biofuel production. The production of biofuels from these waste materials requires physical and or chemical pretreatment to initiate the breakdown of the recalcitrant carbohydrate material before saccharisation occurs through treatment with carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes). Following, the monosaccharides provided are then fermented into suitable biofuel products including ethanol and butanol. The CAZymes used in this project will be sourced from thermophilic bacterial species, finding suitable 'enzymatic cocktails' to process the carbohydrates into simple monosaccharides for fermentation.