Unlocking Lignin for Sustainable Biofuel
In an effort to further the commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol, a team led by ORNL's Jeremy Smith used the Titan supercomputer to model the interaction of lignin and hemicellulose in the plant cell wall of a genetically modified aspen tree. The team's conclusion--that hydrophobic, or water repelling, lignin binds less with hydrophilic, or water attracting, hemicellulose--points researchers toward a promising way to engineer better plants for biofuel. Published in the November 2014 edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, the results add context to experiments conducted by researchers at DOE's BioEnergy Science Center, who demonstrated that genetic modification of lignin can boost the amount of biofuel derived from plant material without compromising the structural integrity of the plant.