Thermophilic Degradation of Hemicellulose, a Critical Feedstock in the Production of Bioenergy and Other Value-Added Products.

ABSTRACT: Renewable fuels have gained importance as the world moves toward diversifying its energy portfolio. A critical step in the biomass-to-bioenergy initiative is deconstruction of plant cell wall polysaccharides to their unit sugars for subsequent fermentation to fuels. To acquire carbon and energy for their metabolic processes, diverse microorganisms have evolved genes encoding enzymes that depolymerize polysaccharides to their carbon/energy-rich building blocks. The microbial enzymes mostly target the energy present in cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, three major forms of energy storage in plants. In the effort to develop bioenergy as an alternative to fossil fuel, a common strategy is to harness microbial enzymes to hydrolyze cellulose to glucose for fermentation to fuels. However, the

SUBMITTER: Cann I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7082577 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature