Abstract
Eucalypt species are a group of flowering trees widely used in pulp production for paper manufacture. For several decades, the wood pulp industry has focused research and development efforts on improving yields, growth rates and pulp quality through breeding and the genetic improvement of key tree species. Recently, this focus has shifted from the production of high quality pulps to the investigation of the use of eucalypts as feedstocks for biofuel production. Here the structure and chemical composition of the heartwood and sapwood of Eucalyptus dunnii, E. globulus, E. pillularis, E. urophylla, an E. urophylla-E. grandis cross, Corymbia citriodora ssp. variegata, and Acacia mangium were compared using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and biochemical composition analysis. Some trends relating to these compositions were also identified by Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy. These results will serve as a foundation for a more comprehensive database of wood properties that will help develop criteria for the selection of tree species for use as biorefinery feedstocks.
Publication types
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Acacia / chemistry
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Biofuels*
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Cell Wall / chemistry
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Chromatography, Ion Exchange
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Eucalyptus / chemistry*
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Eucalyptus / cytology
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Hydrolysis
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Lignin / chemistry
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Monosaccharides / chemistry
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Monosaccharides / isolation & purification
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Multivariate Analysis
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Polysaccharides / chemistry
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Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
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Trees
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Wood / chemistry*
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Wood / cytology
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X-Ray Diffraction
Substances
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Biofuels
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Monosaccharides
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Polysaccharides
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Lignin
Grants and funding
This work was part of the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint BioEnergy Institute (
http://www.jbei.org) supported by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, through contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the United States Department of Energy. The XRD experiments were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, United States Department of Energy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.