BESC Research and Lessons in Pretreatment Chemistry Professor Art Ragauskas
Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy, BioEnergy Science Center, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 12:10 p.m. (Refreshments at 12:00) Room 101 Biochemistry Building Michigan State University The research mission of the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) is to make revolutionary advances in understanding and overcoming the recalcitrance of biomass to conversion into sugars, making it feasible to displace imported petroleum with ethanol and other fuels. The center has three integrated research focus areas including (i) biomass formation and modification; (ii) biomass deconstruction and conversion and (iii) characterization and modeling. Our research efforts in this field are centered about the latter focus area and as such, ongoing studies have examined the utilization of advanced NMR and MS techniques to determine how the structural changes in the plant cell wall can be tailored to reduce biomass recalcitrance.