LBNL tips its Hot 5 technologies

In California, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory highlighted five technologies now available for license. They include:

Improving Saccharification Efficiency by Inhibiting a Xylosyltransferase, a technology that increases soluble sugar extraction notably compared to wild type plants, offering a pathway to more efficient saccharification in bioenergy plants.

Strengthening Bioenergy Feedstock Plants by Overexpression of Three Rice Genes, a technology that strengthens plant stems to over 120% that of wild type plants to help prevent crop loss from stem breakage (lodging).

Ionic Liquids from Lignin-derived Compounds, a technology in which lignin is depolymerized into targeted monolignols that are converted into ionic liquids for use in biomass pretreatment or other industrial applications.

Renewable Chemicals Produced From Lignin, a technology using an ionic liquid-based chemical process to convert polymeric lignin into low molecular weight or monomeric aromatic feedstocks.

Engineering Bacteria for Wastewater Treatment and Simultaneous Production of Biofuels or Biobased Chemicals, a collaborative opportunity to develop and commercialize a wastewater treatment process that removes hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and nitrate from waste streams to derive biofuels or biobased chemicals.