Plant Biomass Biorefinery Network (PBBNet)

石油是一种化石碳资源，用于生产大多数运输燃料以及我们所依赖的大部分散装化学品和材料，但这种资源的储量正在下降。与此同时，对人类活动对全球变暖和气候变化影响的担忧正在推动国际社会承诺减少温室气体的排放，特别是燃烧化石燃料产生的二氧化碳。这鼓励了生物燃料和从植物中提取的生物可再生化学品的发展。这种生物可再生能源的优点是它们是由农作物持续生产的，因此是一种可再生资源。此外，这些产品排放的二氧化碳在净基础上要少得多，因为它们的使用释放的二氧化碳是通过首先从大气中固定来产生生物质来平衡的。目前，生物燃料和生物可再生化学品主要是由植物糖、淀粉和油生产的，问题是它给世界粮食安全带来了额外的压力，推高了粮食价格。最直接可用的替代方案是利用作物不用于食品的木质部分（如谷类作物的秸秆）制造生物燃料和化学物质。这些木质材料主要由多糖（糖聚合物）组成，多糖可以转化为单糖，用于发酵生产燃料和化学品。虽然以这种方式生产燃料和化学品的潜力是众所周知的，但这样做的实用性是具有挑战性的。这是因为将木质材料转化为单糖和其他化学物质的成本太高，无法使最终产品具有成本效益。从木质生物质中生产具有成本效益且可持续的生物燃料和化学品是一项新的工业挑战，只有将广泛的科学学科与在这一领域有雄心的商业部门的公司结合起来，才能解决这一挑战。为了降低加工成本，我们需要开发创新的生物加工方法，将从作物生产、收获、加工到最终产品的整个供应链的理解和创新结合起来。植物生物质生物炼制网络的目的是建立一个由学术和商业部门的研究人员组成的社区，以确定建立基于植物生物质的现代燃料和化学工业的主要全系统挑战。该网络将有助于建立综合的跨学科团队，以应对实现可持续和有竞争力的生物经济愿景的重大挑战。除了提供一个由感兴趣的参与者组成的活跃社区外，该网络还建议提供一系列有竞争力的资助机会，以帮助启动新的重大研究项目，并吸引新的研究人员进入这一研究领域。我们还计划将英国建立为生物质衍生燃料和化学品领域的首选国际合作伙伴。这将通过建立一个优秀的科学基地，并为英国科学家提供鼓励和资助来建立有竞争力的国际合作来实现。该网络亦会与环境科学家紧密合作，确保环境问题是我们所采取措施的核心，并与政府部门的决策者合作，使我们的目标和活动与政府政策和公众利益协调一致。

Petroleum is a fossil carbon resource used to produce most of the transportation fuels and large proportions of bulk chemicals and materials we have come to depend on, but reserves of this resource are in decline. At the same time, concerns over the impact of human activity on global warming and climate change are driving international commitments to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon doixide produced from burning fossil fuels. This has encouraged a move towards biofuels and biorenewable chemicals derived from plants. Such biorenewables have the advantage that they are produced continually by crops and hence area a renewable resource. In addition, these products emit far less carbon dioxide on a net basis because that released from their use is balanced by having been fixed from the atmosphere to produce the biomass in the first instance. Currently, biofuels and biorenewable chemicals are produced mostly from plant sugar, starch and oil, and the problem with this is that it imposes added strain to world food security and pushes up food prices. The most immediately available alternative is to make biofuels and chemicals from the woody parts of crops that are not used for food such as straw from cereal crops. These woody materials are mostly made of polysaccharides (sugar polymers) that can be converted into simple sugars for fermentation to produce fuels and chemicals. Whilst the potential of producing fuels and chemicals in this way is well understood, the practicality of doing it is challenging. This is because the costs of converting woody materials into simple sugars and other chemicals is too expensive to make the resulting products cost-effective. Producing cost effective and sustainable biofuels and chemicals from woody biomass is a new industrial challenge that can only be met by bringing wide-ranging scientific disciplines together with companies from the commercial sector with ambitions in this domain. In order to bring down processing costs we need to develop innovative new approaches to bioprocessing, which incorporate understanding and innovation across the supply chain from crop production and harvesting through processing to final products. The aim of the Plant Biomass Biorefinery Network is establish a community of researchers from the academic and commercial sectors to identify the major system-wide challenges to establishing a modern fuel and chemicals industry based on plant biomass. This network will help establish integrated cross-disciplinary teams to tackle the big challenges to realising the vision of s sustainable and competitive bio-based economy. As well as providing an active community of interested participants, the network proposes to provide a range of competitive funding opportunities to help kick-start new major research projects and to attract new researchers into this area of research. We also plan to establish the UK as the international partner of choice in the area of biomass-derived fuels and chemicals. This will be achieved by establishing an excellent science base and providing encouragement and funding to UK scientists to establish competitive international collaborations. The network will also work closely with environmental scientists to ensure that environmental concerns are at the heart of approaches we take, and with policy makers from government departments to harmonise our aims and activities with government policy and public interests.