Bioenergy trees

26th New Phytologist Symposium

Download the 26th NPS abstract book.

26th New Phytologist Symposium meeting report: Bioenergy from trees by Joshua R. Herr.

Read the Feature issue of New Phytologist on Bioenergy Trees (April 2012).

Thanks to all of our organisers, speakers and delegates who helped to make the 26th NPS such a great success. We will continue to update the site with related information. We will continue to Tweet about updates, so visit us on Twitter (#26NPS) for all the latest news.

Ros Jones
Development Coordinator, New Phytologist

Poster Prize Winners

The judges awarded joint first prize to: Stéphane Maury (Université d’Orléans, France), Oana Dima (VIB-University of Ghent, Belgium) and Hua Wang (Université Toulouse, France).

A series of podcast interviews with the winners and one of the poster prize judges, Steve Strauss, are available on our Media Coverage page, along with copies of the winning posters.

Media Coverage

Podcast interview with lead organiser Francis Martin and post-meeting article and Press Release by our current Intern Karina Vanadzina are all available to download on our Media Coverage page.

Symposium Scope

With the increasing demand for energy and rising petrol-based fuel costs, the development of renewable liquid biofuels derived from cellulosic biomass is a strategic priority for the European Union, USA and Canada. Liquid biofuels offer an important alternative to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to assist rural and agricultural development. In their bid to boost the share of biofuels in transport fuel to 10% by 2020, the European Commission and U.S. Department of Energy awarded >100 million € to a series of research projects dedicated to 2nd generation bioenergy feedstocks.

Trees are attractive energy crops since they thrive in a wide range of habitats and can be grown on marginal lands not suitable for agricultural crops, with reduced input costs and optimised land management. The ultimate goal of the projects that have begun over the last 2­–3 years is to develop poplars, pines and eucalypts as second-generation bioenergy crops, suitable for large-scale deployment in areas unlikely to be used for food agricultural production. These genomics-driven projects integrate ambitious systems biology approaches to optimise the amount, composition, and structure of cell walls for biofuel production and to develop novel tree genotypes with enhanced growth traits under low-input environments.

The 26th NPS will provide a platform for brainstorming and discussions of the most recent systems biology applications aiming to deliver tailored sustainable tree lignocellulosic biomass for bioethanol.