A present abundance of biomass and a decreasing supply of petroleum signal the need for efficient pathways from renewable feedstocks to high value chemicals. One such class of chemicals is oleofurans, molecules comprised of a furan ring and carbon chain which can be used to make powerful hard water surfactants....
A major challenge in ethanol production using lignocellulosic feed stock is
inefficient utilization of hemicellulose, which accounts for 30-40% of lignocellulosic
biomass. Xylose, comprising >60% of recoverable sugars from hemicellulose is a
major product of the hemicellulose hydrolysis. Utilization of this carbon source would
significantly increase the ethanol yield from...