White-rot fungi: the key to sustainable biofuel production?

摘要

Pretreatment of biomass is required in order to efficiently access the energy potential of the substrate. Many pretreatment strategies have been described, which are typically thermochemical or thermo-mechanical processes that are major contributors to the costs of producing energy from biomass [l]. Pretreatment strategies that overcome this key barrier to biofuel production can therefore be very beneficial. One approach is to exploit the natural ability of sap-rophytic fungi to access the energy-rich components of this difficult substrate. These fungi can be applied to many different lignocellulosic substrates and, through their natural growth at ambient temperatures, these organisms will readily degrade and modify the lignin component. This 'biological' pretreatment is known