Cellulosic ethanol that originates from sustainable bioenergy crops may provide an alternative fuel that can reduce our dependency on foreign oil while at the same time provide a more environmentally friendly fuel source.  Two such crops are poplar trees corn.  Poplars have a wide ecological range and distribution and are low maintenance, fast growing, and known for their high energy balance of energy output versus energy input (GreenWood Resources).    Corn stover, which consists of the nearly 120 million tons of leaves, stalks, and cobs remaining after the corn has been harvested, has the potential of being used to provide up to 10% of total gasoline needs (Glassner et al. 1998).  Unfortunately, the commercial availability of cellulosic ethanol is plagued at this time by the slow hydrolysis of Cellulose (which produces the required sugar monomers necessary for bioconversion). This project investigates 1) the feasibility of various pre-treatment methodologies and 2) subsequent conversion to free sugars by various enzymatic mechanisms.

Pretreatment of bioenergy crops and conversion to simple sugars by enzymatic hydrolysis: A biofuel initiative

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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