The use of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases in anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic materials.

Background: The recent discovery that LPMOs can work under anaerobic conditions when supplied with low amounts HO opens the possibility of using LPMOs as enzyme aids in biogas reactors to increase methane yields from lignocellulosic materials. We have explored this possibility by studying anaerobic digestion of various lignocellulosic materials: Avicel, milled spruce and birch wood, and a lignin-rich hydrolysis residue from steam-exploded birch. The digestions were added LPMOs and various cellulolytic enzyme cocktails and were carried out with or without addition of HO.

Tissue-specific distribution of hemicelluloses in six different sugarcane hybrids as related to cell wall recalcitrance.

Background: Grasses are lignocellulosic materials useful to supply the billion-tons annual requirement for renewable resources that aim to produce transportation fuels and a variety of chemicals. However, the polysaccharides contained in grass cell walls are built in a recalcitrant composite. Deconstruction of these cell walls is still a challenge for the energy-efficient and economically viable transformation of lignocellulosic materials.