Plant Cell Walls: Basics of Structure, Chemistry, Accessibility and the Influence on Conversion - Aqueous Pretreatment of Plant Biomass for Biological and Chemical Conversion to Fuels and Chemicals

Abstract

This book is focused on the pretreatment of biomass, a necessary step for efficient conversion of the plant cell wall materials to fuels and other products. Pretreatment is required because it is difficult to access, separate, and release the monomeric sugars comprising the biopolymers within the biomass that can be further upgraded to products through chemical processes such as aqueous phase reforming or biological routes such as fermentation of the sugars to ethanol This resistance to degradation or difficulty to release the monomers (mostly sugars) is commonly referred to as recalcitrance. There are many methods to overcome plant recalcitrance, but the underlying cause of the recalcitrance lies in the complex combination of chemical and structural features of the plant cell walls