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William J. Orts, Kevin
M. Holtman, Gregory M. Glenn, gmg@pw.usda.gov, Richard Offeman,
roffeman@pw.usda.gov, George H. Robertson, grobertson@pw.usda.gov,
Syed H. Imam, simam@pw.usda.gov, and Dominic W. S. Wong,
dwsw@pw.usda.gov. Western Regional Research Center,
USDA-Agricultural Research Service, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA
94710-1100
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| In order for ethanol production to be viable in the
western states, a wide range of feedstocks will need to be utilized
which will require flexibility in the processing capabilities. For
example, California has a limited supply of corn starch, but is the
leading agricultural producer of more than 30 distinctly different
crops, ranging from garlic, to artichokes, strawberries, walnuts, and
grapes. The USDA-ARS has addressed the need for flexible processing of
lignocellulosic material via a targeted program aimed at creating the
athletic biorefinery, whereby, biomass from a wide array of feedstocks
is converted to ethanol within the same plant throughout all seasons.
This summary will focus on our strategies to meet this target, including
(1) new enzymes and technologies for cellulose-to-ethanol capabilities
via directed evolution of microbes, (2) novel separation engineering for
ethanol and bioproduct isolation, (3) application of bioproducts,
biobased plastics, and co-product utilization, and (4) crop improvement
via plant molecular biology. Specific research results will be presented
on such areas as cold starch hydrolysis for reducing energy costs during
ethanol production, microbial screening methods for improving enzyme
specificity and yield, and engineering considerations in developing the
flexible, athletic biorefinery. One example of particular note is
development of a biomass-to-ethanol pilot plant utilizing a mixture of
municipal solids waste (MSW) and ag-derived biomass. |