2^nd World Bioenergy Congress and Expo

In line with the requirements for sustainable economics and clean environments, biofuels from cellulosic biomass have recently received tremendous attention both in industry and academic communities worldwide. However, despite the surging popularity of biofuels as transportation alternatives, they in current have barely put a dent in our use of oil. It is clear that breakthrough technologies are still needed to overcome barriers, particularly for deeper understanding of biomass recalcitrance, developing cost-effective processes for converting biomass to fuels and chemicals. At present, it has become a world leading-edge research field to evaluate and mimic a variety of natural lignocellulosic systems, such as cellulose-eating animals, wood-feeding termites/insects, or other biomass utilization systems, to achieve efficient conversion and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for fuels and chemicals. This review addresses various lignocellulolytic systems, their potential values, challenges, and opportunities that exist for scientists and industries to advance the biofuel technology, where the following topics will be further addressed: 1) Scientific and industrial potentials of the natural biomass utilization systems; 2) Novel biocatalysts explored from natural biomass utilization systems and their engineering potential for industrial uses; 3) Novel microbial symbionts discovered from natural biomass utilization systems by “omics” technologies; 4) Bioreactor innovations mimicked and advanced from the efficient biomass utilization systems by nature-inspired technology. With this overview, I hope that you can sense the excitement of the scientific endeavors both from China and the rest of world to crack the hard nut in developing lignocellulosic biofuels.