SBIR Phase I: Development of Novel Maize Bioenergy Plants Using the LignoLink Technology

智力价值这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目采用了一种新的方法来生产用于生物能源应用的改良玉米品种。纤维素生物质中的木质素形成了一道障碍，限制了纤维素向生物燃料的转化。在所提出的方法中，对作物品种中的木质素进行修饰，以提高向液体燃料的转化。该公司此前在杂交杨树上展示了这种方法。该公司现在已经生产了37个经过相同木质素修饰的转基因玉米品系。该公司正在对来自这些品系的秸秆(玉米植株的非种子部分)的生物量组成进行表征，包括木质素含量、纤维素含量、半纤维素含量和蛋白质含量。该公司将对每个转基因品系的几株植物进行测试，以确定通过温和的预处理方法将生物质转化为乙醇的效率。该公司还将利用在温室中收集的37个转基因玉米品系与重要玉米自交系杂交的种子进行田间试验。大田种植的植物将进行杂交，以产生第三代种子，并对植物的饲料进行生物量含量和消化率分析。这些转基因玉米植株的秸秆有望提高纤维素的萃取率，并显著提高向乙醇的转化率。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是为生物产品行业开发新的、更具成本效益的玉米原料品种。该项目还将展示这种新的木质素改性技术在改善一年生和多年生作物的生物能源原料方面的适用性。处理纤维素生物质以提取糖以生产生物燃料和生物制品是一个具有挑战性和昂贵的工程问题。预处理增加了高达20%的生物燃料生产成本，并可能成为新生物能源行业经济和环境可行性的限制因素。在Lignolink开发的木质素改性技术将被证明通过增加生物质释放糖，使用更温和、更环保的预处理技术来提高生物燃料生产的商业可行性。改善生物质用于前处理和释糖的技术的市场潜力很大。通过提高生物质加工效率来降低生物燃料生产成本的能力将有助于确保生物燃料生产的盈利能力。玉米种植者将有一个新的秸秆市场，这可能会超过从玉米种子中提取的第一代生物燃料市场。还将促进对生物质原料厂木质素改性新方法的科学和技术理解。

Intellectual MeritThis Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project takes a novel approach toproduce improved maize cultivars for bioenergy applications. Lignin in cellulosic biomass creates a barrier that limits conversion of cellulose into biofuels. In the proposed approach, the lignin in crop cultivars is modified to improve conversion to liquid fuels. The Company previously demonstrated the approach in hybrid poplar. The Company has now produced 37 transgenic maize lines with the same lignin modification. The Company is characterizing the biomass composition in the stover (non-seed portions of the maize plant) from these lines, including lignin content, cellulose content, hemi-cellulose content, and protein content. The Company will conduct tests on several plants from each transgenic line for efficiency of conversion of the biomass into ethanol by gentle pretreatment methods. The Company will also conduct field trials with seed collected in the greenhouse from the 37 transgenic maize lines crossed to important maize inbred lines. The field-grown plants will be crossed to generate third-generation seed, and the fodder of the plants analyzed for biomass content and digestibility. The stover of these transgenic maize plants is expected to have increased cellulose extractability and significantly higher rates of conversion to ethanol.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the development of new, more cost-effective feedstock cultivars of maize for the bio-based products industry. This project will also demonstrate the applicability of this new lignin-modification technology for improving bioenergy feedstocks for both annual and perennial crops. The treatment of cellulosic biomass for sugar extraction for production of biofuels and bioproducts is a challenging and expensive engineering issue. Pretreatment adds as much as 20% to the cost of biofuel production, and can be a limiting factor for economic and environmental viability of the new bioenergy industry. The lignin modification technology developed at Lignolink will be shown to improve the commercial viability of biofuels production by increasing sugar release from biomass, using milder, more- environmentally-friendly pretreatment techniques. The market potential for technology that improves biomass for pretreatment and sugar release is large. The ability to decrease biofuels production costs by improving biomass processing efficiency will help ensure profitability in biofuels production. Corn growers will have a new market for stover, which may surpass the market for first generation biofuels from corn seed. Scientific and technological understanding of a novel means for lignin modification in biomass feedstock plants will also be advanced.