Résumé
The architecture of plant biomass is highly complex and variable depending on species and can be defined as a continuum of length-scales from molecules to particles, including polymers, nano-structures, assemblies, cells, and tissues. These scales are strongly interconnected and reflect not only chemical and structural properties of biomass but most importantly their reactivity to transformation processes such as chemical, physical, mechanical or biological reactions. In order to optimize biomass conversion (considering process selection and efficiency, cost and environmental impacts) into a range of bioproducts, detailed chemical and structural characterization is essential. However, due to natural recalcitrance of biomass, no universal markers have been highlighted able to predict biomass ability to transformation.FillingGaps project envisions to develop generic tools to not only characterize at several length scales biomass properties but also to assemble the different types of information (chemical, physical, morphological properties) acquired to propose virtual model of biomass from which specific markers could be described.Gathering 10 different French partners, high-level multiscale approaches (combining wet chemistry compositional analysis, FT-IR and fluorescence spectroscopy, photon and atomic-force microscopy, NMR, MRI, mass-spectrometry imaging, SAXS, UV and tomography synchrotron beamlines) and workflow for biomass characterization with shared platform on model biomass (maize straw, poplar and brown algae) will be applied. New molecular tools (e.g. monoclonal antibodies, CBMs, enzymes, probes) to mark and analyse biomass will be delivered. Finally, a decision-making tools will be proposed to predict biomass properties and reactivity based on easily and fast-performed analysis.