EnergyPoplar is a small collaborative project focused on enhancing poplar traits for energy applications. Crops which are grown specifically for the production of renewable energy offer new opportunities for sustainable forestry and agricultural systems.

Where this involves marginal land, new economic potential can be realized. The current knowledge of dedicated energy crops is limited, both in relation to the biological processes involved in the synthesis of substances acting as raw material for biofuel production, as well as in relation to the discovery, domestication and/or development of new energy crops.

Realizing the potential of this area will necessitate the application of genetic and genomic technologies to facilitate gene discovery and fast-track breeding. It will also entail developing greater knowledge of supply chain issues including life cycle analysis and environmental impact. The expected output of this project are market driven, hardy, viable and profitable energy crops with enhanced traits derived from conventional and biotechnological breeding techniques which exploit the post genomic knowledge base.

The overall objective of EnergyPoplar is to develop domesticated energy poplars having both desirable cell-wall traits and high biomass yield under sustainable low-input conditions to be used as a source of lignocellulosic feedstock for bioethanol.

To achieve this goal, EnergyPoplar will integrate an ambitious multidisciplinary approach (molecular, cellular, organismal, and community) to i) optimize the amount, composition, and structure of walls (reducing lignin content and changing wall organization and composition) for biofuel production and ii) domesticate and develop poplars with enhanced traits.

Beyond the life of this project it is hoped to capture further commercial benefits and to deploy the high-throughput genomics platform on a commercial scale with appropriate commercialization of the research.

Further information can be found on the Energy Polar website.