{"409531":{"#nid":"409531","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Making Money from Lignin: Roadmap Shows How to Improve Lignocellulosic Biofuel Biorefining","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022intro-text\u0022\u003EWhen making cellulosic ethanol from plants, one problem is what to do with a woody agricultural waste product called lignin. The old adage in the pulp industry has been that one can make anything from lignin except money.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Arthur Ragauskas prepares samples containing cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose for analysis using advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques,\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA new review article in the journal\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EScience\u003C\/em\u003Epoints the way toward a future where lignin is transformed from a waste product into valuable materials such as low-cost carbon fiber for cars or bio-based plastics. Using lignin in this way would create new markets for the forest products industry and make ethanol-to-fuel conversion more cost-effective.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve developed a roadmap for integrating genetic engineering with analytical chemistry tools to tailor the structure of lignin and its isolation so it can be used for materials, chemicals and fuels,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.chemistry.gatech.edu\/faculty\/Ragauskas\/\u0022\u003EArthur Ragauskas\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Ragauskas is also part of the Institute for Paper Science and Technology at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe roadmap was published May 15 in the journal\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/344\/6185\/1246843.abstract\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EScience\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. Co-authors of the review included scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe growth of the cellulosic fuel industry has created a stream of lignin that the industry needs to find valuable ways to use. At the same time, federal agencies and industry are funding research to simplify the process of taking biomass to fuels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the very promising approaches to doing that is to genetically engineer plants so they have more reactive polysaccharides suitable for commercial applications, but also to change lignin\u2019s structural features so that it\u2019ll become more attractive for materials applications, chemicals and fuels.\u201d Ragauskas said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch highlighted in the review has shown it\u2019s theoretically possible to genetically alter lignin pathways to reduce undesirable byproducts and more efficiently capture the desired polysaccharides \u2013 which are sugars that can be converted to other products \u2013 and enhance lignin\u2019s commercial value.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere are sufficient publications and data points out there to say that say, \u2018Yes, we can do this,\u2019\u201d Ragauskas said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough work on transgenic plants and wild plants that naturally have fewer undesirable constituents, biologists, engineers and chemists have recently improved the biorefinery field\u2019s understanding of the chemistry and structure of lignin, which provides a better idea of the theoretical chemistry that lignin can do, Ragauskas said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe should be able to alter the structure of lignin and isolate it in such a manner that we can use it for green-based materials or use it in a blend for a variety of synthetic polymers,\u201d Ragauskas said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDoing so would create a stream of polysaccharides for use as ethanol fuels, with lignin waste that has structural features that would make it attractive for commercial applications such as polymers or carbon fibers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe science could be applied to a variety of plants currently used for cellulosic biofuel production, such as switchgrass and poplar.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday, lignin is mostly burned for energy to fulfill a small amount of the power requirements of the ethanol biorefineries. But the new roadmap emphasizes how, through genetic engineering tools that currently exist, lignin could become much more valuable to industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur primary mission is to reduce the cost of taking biomass to biofuels,\u201d Ragauskas said, \u201cBut in the process we\u2019ve learned a lot about lignin, and we might be able to do more than just reduce cost. We might be able to tailor lignin\u2019s structure for commercial applications.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECo-authors on the review article included scientists from the National Renewable Energy, the University of British Columbia, the University of North Texas, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of California, Riverside.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECITATION\u003C\/strong\u003E: Arthur J. Ragauskas, et al., \u201cLignin Valorization: Improving Lignin Processing in the Biorefinery.\u201d (\u003Cem\u003EScience\u003C\/em\u003E, May 2014).\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1246843%C2%A0\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1246843\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ragauskas improves lignocellulosic biofule refining technique"}],"uid":"27178","created_gmt":"2015-06-02 10:54:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:25","author":"Amna Jamshad","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-05-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-05-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"409521":{"id":"409521","type":"image","title":"Professor Arthur Ragauskas prepares samples containing cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose for analysis using advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques","body":null,"created":"1449254195","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:35","changed":"1475895137","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:17","alt":"Professor Arthur Ragauskas prepares samples containing cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose for analysis using advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques","file":{"fid":"202229","name":"ragauskas_1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ragauskas_1_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ragauskas_1_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":142257,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ragauskas_1_0.jpg?itok=Y511uL2h"}}},"media_ids":["409521"],"groups":[{"id":"372221","name":"Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI)"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2056","name":"biofuel"},{"id":"1503","name":"Biotechnology"},{"id":"81401","name":"lignin"},{"id":"127611","name":"lignocellulosic"},{"id":"93811","name":"RBI"},{"id":"4174","name":"renewable"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKelly B. Smith, Marketing \u0026amp; Communication\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kelly.smith@ipst.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}