Research being performed at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation holds the potential to improve biofuel production.

Richard Dixon, D.Phil., a Senior Vice President and Director of the Plant Biology Division at the Noble Foundation, along with Noble Foundation scientist Fang Chen, Ph.D., have been studying the effects of lignin on biofuels production. Dixon's and Chen's research has shown that decreasing the amount of lignin - a substance which defines the cell walls of all plants - by genetic manipulation can greatly enhance sugar release from cell wall carbohydrates for ethanol production. Their work received national and international attention this week when it was published by Nature Biotechnology, one of the world's foremost weekly scientific journals.

Dixon's and Chen's paper - entitled Lignin modification improves fermentable sugar yields for biofuel production - was first published on Nature Biotechnology's Web site and will be followed by a print publication later this summer.

"We believe this work represents an important first step in improving the efficiency of dedicated bioenergy crops for ethanol production," Dixon said. "Although our studies were performed in alfalfa, which is currently used more as a forage than a bioenergy crop, the results should translate to species such as switchgrass, poplar and Miscanthus, to make them more viable and productive options for ethanol production."

Dixon's and Chen's research addresses one of the fundamental issues scientists face when attempting to withdraw the fermentable sugars in crops, such as switchgrass and alfalfa, for fermentation to bioethanol. Most plant material contains lignin, which blocks accessibility of the cell wall carbohydrates to the microbial enzymes used to release their component sugars. The biomass must therefore first be treated with acid at high temperatures to expose the carbohydrates for enzymatic digestion to the sugars that are subsequently fermented into bioethanol.

In their research, Dixon and Chen decreased the amount of lignin in alfalfa stems by independently targeting six different steps in lignin formation. The alfalfa containing less lignin proved to be more susceptible to digestion by the enzymes used to convert plant material into fermentable sugars. Some of the alfalfa yielded almost double the amount of sugar released from conventional alfalfa, and could be effectively processed without the need for acid pre-treatment.

"This approach to lignin promises to reduce the costs and increase the yield of bioethanol production from alfalfa," Dixon said. "This will also reduce the need for environmentally damaging acid in the biofuel refining process."

Lignin research is just one aspect of the Noble Foundation's efforts to assist the biofuels industry. The Noble Foundation's work concerns a broad range of feedstock development matters, including creating high-yielding bioenergy crops, developing crop production and management plans for agricultural producers and engineering advanced feedstocks tailored to specific ethanol conversion processes.

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News Release Issued: June 28, 2007

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc. (www.noble.org), headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a nonprofit organization conducting agricultural, forage improvement and plant biology research; assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs; and providing grants to nonprofit charitable, educational and health organizations.