Research Finds Key Plant Traits Lead to Cheaper Biofuels Production

EthanolMarket.com Researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have found that the amount and composition of lignin in a plant’s cell wall interact in an unanticipated way to influence the release of sugar from the plant. This clue is helping researchers from the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) narrow down a large collection of poplar tree candidates and identify winners for future use in biofuel production. Read more