Towards a deeper understanding of structural biomass recalcitrance using phase-contrast tomography

Biotechnology for Biofuels
Augusta IsaacIngo Manke

Abstract

The development of technological routes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to liquid fuels requires an in-depth understanding of the cell wall architecture of substrates. Essential pretreatment processes are conducted to reduce biomass recalcitrance and usually increase the reactive surface area. Quantitative three-dimensional information about both bulk and surface structural features of substrates needs to be obtained to expand our knowledge of substrates. In this work, phase-contrast tomography (PCT) was used to gather information about the structure of a model lignocellulosic biomass (piassava fibers). The three-dimensional cellular organization of piassava fibers was characterized by PCT using synchrotron radiation. This technique enabled important physical features that describe the substrate piassava fibers to be visualized and quantified. The external surface area of a fiber and internal surface area of the pores in a fiber could be determined separately. More than 96% of the overall surface area available to enzymes was in the bulk substrate. The pore surface area and length exhibited a positive linear relationship, where the slope of this relationship depended on the plant tissue. We demonstrated that PCT is a powerfu...Continue Reading

References

Jun 13, 2000·Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology·V S Chang, M T Holtzapple
Nov 13, 2004·Biotechnology and Bioengineering·Yi-Heng Percival Zhang, Lee R Lynd
Feb 10, 2007·Science·Michael E HimmelThomas D Foust
Jun 5, 2013·Microscopy Research and Technique·Celso Sant'AnnaWanderley de Souza

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Citations

Nov 21, 2015·Biotechnology Progress·Arun Athmanathan, Sabrina Trupia

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
enzymatic treatments
scanning electron microscopy
X-ray
imaging techniques

Software Mentioned

ImageJ

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