Recalcitrance of plant materials - PhD defence by Jane Lindedam : 1. juni 2010 (1-01)

Ph.D. Defendant:   Cand. Scient. Jane Lindedam

 

Time and Place:  Tuesday 1 June 2010 at 10:15 a.m. in Lecture Hall 1-01, Bülowsvej 17, Ground Floor, 1870 Frederiksberg C  

 

Subject Area: Fundamental Aspects of Plant Residue Decomposition

 

Title of PhD Thesis: Recalcitrance of Plant Materials – Variation in Inherent Quality and other Facors Affecting Degradation Related to Agronomy and Bioethanol Production

 

Title of Lecture: Recalcitrance of Plant Materials – Variation in Inherent Quality and other Facors Affecting Degradation Related to Agronomy and Bioethanol Production

 

Summary: The presentation will focus on differences in recalcitrance of wheat straw cultivars and their subsequent capability to produce bioethanol. Also, parallels from degradability in soil and digestibility in rumen to the processability into bioethanol have been studied.

Results demonstrated a variability of 30-40% in digestibility and up to 26% cultivar variability in sugar yield with significant and substantial effects of both environmental conditions and genetic traits. We assess that genetic selection for an improved biofuel feedstock within wheat straw is possible, with total sugar yield heritability of 57%.
Conclusively, we found a strong influence of genetics on recalcitrance and factors affecting both ethanol production and biotic processes are the substrate-to-enzyme ratio, C-to-N ratio, content of ash and lignin, and bioavailability.

Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Jakob Magid, Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen

 

Co-Supervisor: Associate Professor Sander Bruun, Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen
 
Professor Claus Felby, Danish Centre for Forest and Landscape

 

Assessment Committee: Professor Lars Stoumann Jensen, Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen (chairman)

Senior Researcher Isabelle Bertrand, INRA-UMR FARE, Reims Cedex 2, France

Professor Anne S. Meyer, Technical University of Denmark