Biological and Catalytic Conversion of Sugars and Lignin
Our research group—composed of staff scientists, postdoctoral associates, students, and technicians—develops biological and chemical catalysts for cost-effective production of fuels and chemicals from terrestrial biomass.
An NREL study of cellulose translocation in the bacterial cellulose synthase predicts how cellulose is synthesized in its cellobiose form.
Our team published a study on using base-catalyzed depolymerization on several biorefinery-relevant lignins, which was selected as an ACS Editor's Choice article at ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.
A study about fungal cellulases was published in Chemical Reviews with collaborators at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, which is serving as a useful resource for the cellulose community.
Lignin Valorization
Our group is pursuing strategies to depolymerize lignin in an integrated biorefinery context and subsequently upgrade lignin-derived aromatics into value-added chemicals to realize a more holistic, integrated approach to biomass conversion.
Biological Upgrading of Sugars
Our group focuses on biological upgrading of some of the most commonly sought products from lignocellulosic biomass, pentose, and hexose sugars trapped inside the polysaccharides, to fuel precursors and value-added chemicals.
Chemical Catalysis and Separations for Fuels and Chemicals Production
We are developing bench-scale catalytic and separations processes to produce hydrocarbon fuels and value-added co-products from biologically and catalytically derived intermediates from biomass.
Enzymology
Our group has a keen interest in the development of molecular insights into enzymatic processes for both deconstructing cellulose and also assembling it as well as in the use of novel metabolic enzymes for biologically producing fuel precursors.
Research Team
Principal Investigators
Christopher W. Johnson
Research Scientist, Biocatalyst Development
Christopher.Johnson@nrel.gov303-275-3803
Violeta Sànchez i Nogué
Researcher III, Chemical Engineering
Violeta.SancheziNogue@nrel.gov303-384-6641
Laura Berstis
Steve Chmely, Assistant Professor at University of Tennessee Knoxville
Anna Knapp, Olson College
Heather Mayes, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Chicago
Kellene McKinney, Technician at NREL
Kathleen Moyer, RPI
Jennifer Nill, Ph.D. student at UC Davis with Professor Tina Jeoh
Claire Nimlos, Ph.D. student at Purdue University
Christy Payne, Assistant Professor at University of Kentucky
Deanne W. Sammond, Staff Scientist at NREL
Matthew Sturgeon, Staff Scientist at NREL
Courtney Taylor, Engineer at ExxonMobil
Xiaoqing Wang
Collaborators
Linda Broadbelt (Northwestern University)
Robert Brown, Laura Jarboe, Marjorie Rover, Brent Shanks, Zengyi Shao, and Ryan Smith (Iowa State University)
Dave Dayton (RTI International)
Richard Dixon and Fang Chen (University of North Texas)
John Dorgan (Colorado School of Mines)
Vincent Eijsink, Svein Horn, Morten Srlie, Gustav Vaaje-Kolstad, and Bjrge Westereng (Norwegian University of Life Science [NMBU])
Tom Elder (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Lindsay Eltis (University of British Columbia)
Shinya Fushinobu (University of Tokyo, Japan)
John Gladden and Blake Simmons (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories)
Adam Guss and Amit Naskar (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Clare McCabe (Vanderbilt University)
John McGeehan and Simon Cragg (University of Portsmouth)
Ellen Neidle (University of Georgia)
Willie Nicol (University of Pretoria)
Christy Payne (University of Kentucky)
Allison Ray (Idaho National Laboratory)
Yuriy Roman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Mats Sandgren, Jerry Sthlberg, and Henrik Hansson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences [SLU])
Zhongping Tan (University of Colorado)
Jochen Zimmer (University of Virginia)
Funding and support is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office and Office of Science, the BioEnergy Science Center, the Energy Frontier Research Center, and C3Bio.