Optimization of wheat and oilseed rape straw co-products for bio-alcohol production

各种形式的生物质代表了用于降解和发酵以生产作为液体生物燃料的醇的潜在原料，其中残留的富含蛋白质的材料适合于进一步开发，例如用于动物饲料的加工。这提供了大量替代化石燃料的潜力，并具有相关的可持续性和环境效益。然而，近年来评估的许多来源，如杨柳或柳枝稷，将直接与英国粮食作物竞争土地使用。随着人们越来越认识到世界（和英国）粮食安全的脆弱性，以及相关的粮食价格波动，越来越清楚的是，仅为生物燃料而种植的作物取代粮食作物是不合适的。然而，与英国粮食作物的生产和加工有关的“废物”生物质有几个来源。这些为“生物精炼”提供了潜在的原料，以从谷物/种子回收后的残留物中回收生物燃料和动物饲料。这种方法不会与粮食作物竞争;实际上，秸秆等副产品的价值增加应该会提高英国粮食作物生产的财务可行性。英国的主要粮食作物，如小麦和油菜，比收获的谷物或种子产生更多的秸秆副产品。这种秸秆构成了丰富的潜在原料。然而，这些作物是为了谷物或种子的质量和产量而培育的，而不是为了它们生产的秸秆的成分。过去对秸秆成分的研究已经揭示了品种之间（以及秸秆的不同形态成分之间）对于生物酒精生产重要的主要化学成分的惊人的广泛变化。我们已经参与了一个由Defra资助的正在进行的研究计划，该计划正在制定有效利用食物链中生物质残留物的方法。拟议的研究与该项目相吻合，提供了优化主要原料的方法：小麦和油菜秸秆。结合起来，这两个项目将建立供应链（从育种者和农民到生物酒精生产商和汽车工业），以提供科学的财务和社会效益。我们的目标是彻底分析当前小麦和油菜品种的秸秆成分，以及育种者使用的遗传物质，以获得对生物燃料生产具有重要意义的成分特征。我们将使用最近开发的技术来探索小麦和油菜中数万个基因的序列和表达的变化，并将这些遗传特征与品系的组成特征联系起来，以开发标记用于随后的育种计划。利用我们获得的信息，我们将假设不同潜在原料的加工特性，并使用中试装置系统测试这些特性。

Various forms of biomass represent potential feedstocks for degradation and fermentation to produce alcohols as liquid biofuels, with residual protein-rich materials being suitable for further exploitation, such as processing for animal feed. This provides the potential to substantially substitute for fossil fuels, with the associated sustainability and environmental benefits. However, many of the sources evaluated in recent years, such as willow or Switchgrass, would compete directly with UK food crops for land use. With the growing recognition of the vulnerabilities of world (and UK) food security, and associated food price volatility, it is becoming increasingly clear that the displacement of food crops by crops grown solely for biofuel is inappropriate. There are, however, several sources of 'waste' biomass associated with the UK production and processing of food crops. These provide potential feedstocks for 'biorefining' to recover biofuels and animal feed from residues after grain/seed recovery. This approach does not compete with food crops; indeed the increased value of co-products such as straw should enhance the financial viability of food crop production in the UK. Major UK food crops such as wheat and oilseed rape produce more straw co-product than harvested grain or seeds. This straw constitutes a plentiful potential feedstock. However, these crops have been bred for the quality and yield of grain or seeds, not for the composition of the straw they produce. Past studies of straw composition have revealed surprisingly extensive variation between varieties (and between different morphological components of the straw) for the major chemical constituents of importance for bioalcohol production. We are already involved in an ongoing research programme, funded by Defra, which is developing the methodology for the efficient exploitation of biomass residues from the food chain. The proposed research dovetails with this project, providing the means to optimise the principal feedstocks: wheat and oilseed rape straw. Combined, these two projects will establish the supply chain (from breeders and farmers to bio-alcohol producers and the motor industry) needed to deliver the financial and societal benefits of the science. We aim to thoroughly analyse the composition of straw from current wheat and oilseed rape varieties, and of genetic material in use by breeders, for compositional characteristics of importance for biofuel production. We will use recently-developed technologies to explore variation of the sequences and expression of tens of thousands of genes in each of wheat and oilseed rape, and relate these genetic characteristics to the compositional characteristics of the lines in order to develop markers for use in subsequent breeding programmes. Using the information we have gained, we will hypothesise the processability characteristics of differing potential feedstocks and test these using a pilot plant system.