Promoting Bioethanol Production through Clean Development Mechanism: Findings and lessons learnt from ASIATIC project

Global climate change mitigation policies call for increasing use of biomass fuels as renewable substitutes to fossil energy resources. Quantified targets for biofuels introduction in to the market exist in the United States, the European Union, and a number of developing countries. In this context, mixing biologically produced ethanol with conventional gasoline represents an attractive technical option allowing for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and lessening the dependence on non-renewable petrol in the transportation sector. This paper investigates technological and socio-economic aspects of ethanol production in developing countries, particularly in China, with special focus on determining eligibility of bioethanol projects for Clean Development Mechanism. Basing on the findings of the ASIATIC study (Agriculture and Small to Medium Scale Industries in Peri-urban Areas through Ethanol Production for Transport In China), we analyse how alcohol fuels can be produced in a sustainable way with mutual benefits between rural and urban people. The bioethanol production cost and life cycle CO2eq emissions were calculated for six different types of feedstock: sugarcane, sugarcane molasses, sweet sorghum juice, cassava, corn, and sorghum bagasse. Implications of the CDM rules and procedures for bioethanol industry were examined under the angles of environmental and economical additionality, and conformity with the principles of sustainable development. It is found that the starch-based (cassava) ethanol production path has the greatest potential for market penetration in China, followed by the conversion route using sugar-based feedstock (sorghum juice, sugarcane molasses). Meanwhile, the lignocelluloses biomass - to - ethanol technology may represent the highest interest for implementation as Clean Development Mechanism project

Estimating Energy and Greenhouse gas balances of biofuels: Concepts and methodologies

The interest in developing biofuels has rapidly increased during the last decades followed by a strong controversy about their sustainability. Diverting a large amount of land from agriculture to fuels, impacting forests and grasslands, loss of biodiversity due to large monocropped fields are some threats that inhibit the momentum towards a significant substitution of fossil fuels by biofuels. From a methodological point of view, several estimations of the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biofuels lead to a large variability of results even if they address the same biofuel pathway. It has been shown that the methods used and the assumptions on data inventories, system boundaries, allocation of resources and emissions may significantly impact the results. In different countries and regions in the world, sustainability standards are being developed in order to limit the promotion of biofuels to those that are environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically effective

Mechanism of KMT5B haploinsufficiency in neurodevelopment in humans and mice.

Pathogenic variants in KMT5B, a lysine methyltransferase, are associated with global developmental delay, macrocephaly, autism, and congenital anomalies (OMIM# 617788). Given the relatively recent discovery of this disorder, it has not been fully characterized. Deep phenotyping of the largest (n = 43) patient cohort to date identified that hypotonia and congenital heart defects are prominent features that were previously not associated with this syndrome. Both missense variants and putative loss-of-function variants resulted in slow growth in patient-derived cell lines. KMT5B homozygous knockout mice were smaller in size than their wild-type littermates but did not have significantly smaller brains, suggesting relative macrocephaly, also noted as a prominent clinical feature. RNA sequencing of patient lymphoblasts and Kmt5b haploinsufficient mouse brains identified differentially expressed pathways associated with nervous system development and function including axon guidance signaling. Overall, we identified additional pathogenic variants and clinical features in KMT5B-related neurodevelopmental disorder and provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of the disorder using multiple model systems

Mechanism of KMT5B haploinsufficiency in neurodevelopment in humans and mice.

Pathogenic variants in KMT5B, a lysine methyltransferase, are associated with global developmental delay, macrocephaly, autism, and congenital anomalies (OMIM# 617788). Given the relatively recent discovery of this disorder, it has not been fully characterized. Deep phenotyping of the largest (n = 43) patient cohort to date identified that hypotonia and congenital heart defects are prominent features that were previously not associated with this syndrome. Both missense variants and putative loss-of-function variants resulted in slow growth in patient-derived cell lines. KMT5B homozygous knockout mice were smaller in size than their wild-type littermates but did not have significantly smaller brains, suggesting relative macrocephaly, also noted as a prominent clinical feature. RNA sequencing of patient lymphoblasts and Kmt5b haploinsufficient mouse brains identified differentially expressed pathways associated with nervous system development and function including axon guidance signaling. Overall, we identified additional pathogenic variants and clinical features in KMT5B-related neurodevelopmental disorder and provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of the disorder using multiple model systems