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Herbaceous energy crop development: recent progress and future prospects.

Emily A Heaton¹, Richard B Flavell, Peter N Mascia

¹Ceres, Inc., 1535 Rancho Conejo Boulevard, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA. eheaton@ceres-inc.com

Current Opinion in Biotechnology

|June 3, 2008

Summary

Next-generation energy crops, optimized through plant genomics, can significantly improve solar energy conversion efficiency for biofuels. This research highlights the potential for advanced plant breeding to create sustainable and economically viable nonfossil fuel sources.

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Area of Science:

Biotechnology
Renewable Energy
Plant Science

Background:

Rapid growth in nonfossil transportation fuels driven by oil prices and government mandates.
Current reliance on food crops for first-generation biofuels is suboptimal.
Need for energy crops optimized for efficient solar energy conversion.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the theoretical and realized efficiencies of solar energy conversion into biomass for energy crops.
To explore the potential of plant genomics in developing next-generation energy crops.
To compare the energy transduction efficiency of plant leaves with photovoltaic (PV) cells.

Main Methods:

Analysis of theoretical solar energy conversion efficiencies in different plant types.
Review of realized year-long solar energy conversion efficiencies.
Comparison of energy transduction in plant leaves and PV cells at the charge separation level.
Examination of energy dissipation pathways in photosynthesis.
Application of plant genomics in advanced plant breeding.

Main Results:

Theoretical solar energy conversion efficiency ranges from 4.6-6%, with realized efficiencies around 3%.
Plant leaves demonstrate high efficiency in transducing solar energy to charge separation, comparable to advanced PV cells.
Significant energy loss in photosynthesis occurs as heat during biomass synthesis.
Biomass production involves autonomous construction, maintenance, and regrowth, unlike PV cells.

Conclusions:

Plant genomics offers a pathway to develop next-generation energy crops with significantly improved solar energy conversion efficiencies.
Optimized energy crops can enhance the sustainability and economic viability of biofuels.
Future energy crop development should focus on maximizing theoretical efficiencies while ensuring environmental and economic integrity.