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

作为一种能源，世界各地的化石燃料资源正在枯竭，成为温室气体排放的主要贡献者。因此，满足世界能源需求的更清洁、更绿色的战略正变得越来越紧迫。从生物质生产生物燃料(来自废物产品，即废粮食、来自林业/造纸生产的材料等)是一种以更低排放生产更绿色能源的方法，为应对世界能源需求提供了一种战略。废弃的生物质由碳水化合物分子纤维素和半纤维素组成，为生物燃料的生产提供了来源。从这些废物中生产生物燃料需要物理和/或化学预处理，以在糖化之前通过碳水化合物活性酶(CAZymes)处理开始分解顽固的碳水化合物材料。然后，将所提供的单糖发酵成适当的生物燃料产品，包括乙醇和丁醇。这个项目中使用的CAZymes将来自嗜热细菌物种，找到合适的“酶鸡尾酒”来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.