The Mechanisms of Plant Cell Wall Deconstruction during Enzymatic Hydrolysis

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Mechanisms of Plant Cell Wall Deconstruction during Enzymatic Hydrolysis

AU - Thygesen, Lisbeth Garbrecht

AU - Thybring, Emil Engelund

AU - Johansen, Katja Salomon

AU - Felby, Claus

PY - 2014/9/18

Y1 - 2014/9/18

N2 - Mechanical agitation during enzymatic hydrolysis of insoluble plant biomass at high dry matter contents is indispensable for the initial liquefaction step in biorefining. It is known that particle size reduction is an important part of liquefaction, but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Here we put forward a simple model based on mechanical principles capable of capturing the result of the interaction between mechanical forces and cell wall weakening via hydrolysis of glucosidic bonds. This study illustrates that basic material science insights are relevant also within biochemistry, particularly when it comes to up-scaling of processes based on insoluble feed stocks.

AB - Mechanical agitation during enzymatic hydrolysis of insoluble plant biomass at high dry matter contents is indispensable for the initial liquefaction step in biorefining. It is known that particle size reduction is an important part of liquefaction, but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Here we put forward a simple model based on mechanical principles capable of capturing the result of the interaction between mechanical forces and cell wall weakening via hydrolysis of glucosidic bonds. This study illustrates that basic material science insights are relevant also within biochemistry, particularly when it comes to up-scaling of processes based on insoluble feed stocks.

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0108313

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0108313

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25232741

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 9

SP - 1

EP - 4

JO - PLoS Computational Biology

JF - PLoS Computational Biology

IS - 9

ER -