A strategy to improve the processing of softwood to sustainable biomaterials and biofuels

In a paper recently published in Biotechnology for Biofuels we are looking at a possible way to improve the processing of timber derived from conifers to feedstock used for sustainable manufacturing of novel biomaterials and biofuels. Softwood, as any other timber, is predominantly composed of plant secondary cell walls - an intricate matrix of polysaccharides and phenolic compounds which surround wood cells. Due to abundance of trees, plant secondary cell walls are the largest, renewable, resource of bioenergy on the planet.

Green method developed for making technical fibres

The team at the Centre for Natural Material Innovation has designed a super stretchy, strong and sustainable material that mimics the qualities of spider silk and viscose rayon, and is ‘spun’ from a material that is 98% water.

New journal article published by Professor Dupree

Cambridge Science Festival 2017 Natural Material Innovation

New publication in the Nature Communication: Folding of xylan onto cellulose fibrils in plant cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR