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Commercial yeasts upgraded with an enzyme for biofuel production
February 25, 2009Eckhard Boles, co-founder of the Swiss biofuel company Butalco GmbH and a professor at Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany, has discovered a new enzyme which teaches yeast cells to ferment xylose into ethanol. Xylose is an unused waste sugar in the cellulosic ethanol production process. The researchers have recently filed a patent application for their process.
In industrial fermentation processes, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is commonly used for ethanol production. Current bioethanol production technologies can use only parts of the plants, namely the storage sugars, like glucose, sucrose or starch. However, this technology is in competition with food and feed production. Eckhard Boles, co-founder of the Swiss biofuel company Butalco GmbH and a professor at Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany, has therefore searched for ways of teaching the microorganisms to convert waste sugars, xylose and arabinose, into ethanol. Now, Boles and his colleagues have succeeded in genetically modifying industrial yeast strains, thus producing ethanol from xylose in a single step. Having already succeeded in transforming arabinose into ethanol by genetically modified yeast strains, Boles and his team have now found an efficient way to convert most of the plants energy into biofuel.
Boles says: "We have successfully demonstrated the conversion of waste sugars into ethanol. However, ethanol is not the best renewable biofuel. There are other alcohols with many more promising properties." Together with his company, Butalco GmbH, Boles is now constructing yeast strains to convert plant waste materials into biobutanol, which is being seen as a more superior alternative fuel than ethanol due to its more favourable chemical and physical properties.
Goethe University Frankfurt
Biofuel Current Events and Biofuel News RSSMiscounting bioenergy benefits may increase greenhouse gas release
A fixable error in the way carbon is counted in current U.S. climate legislation and in the Kyoto Protocol could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using biofuels, says a premier group of national environmental and land use scientists.
Popping the cork on biofuel agriculture
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a novel enzyme responsible for the formation of suberin - the woody, waxy, cell-wall substance found in cork.
World-first sustainable racing car to take on Formula 3 at Brands Hatch
Can the idea of 'green motorsport' actually work? Yes, according to EPSRC funded researcher, Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, who led the research team which designed and built the worldfirst fully sustainable Formula 3 racing car.
Strategy outlined for growing bioenergy while protecting wildlife
A study described in the October issue of BioScience identifies diverse native prairie as holding promise for yielding bioenergy feedstocks while minimizing harm to wildlife.
National new biology initiative offers potential for 'remarkable and far-reaching benefits'
A report released today by the National Research Council calls on the United States to launch a new multiagency, multiyear, and multidisciplinary initiative to capitalize on the extraordinary advances recently made in biology and to accelerate new breakthroughs that could solve some of society's most pressing problems -- particularly in the areas of food, environment, energy, and health.
Biofuel production could undercut efforts to shrink Gulf 'Dead Zone'
Scientists in Pennsylvania report that boosting production of crops used to make biofuels could make a difficult task to shrink a vast, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico more difficult.
High-res view of zinc transport protein
How much difference can a tenth of a nanometer make? When it comes to figuring out how proteins work, an improvement in resolution of that miniscule amount can mean the difference between seeing where atoms are and understanding how they interact.
Plants on steroids: Key missing link discovered
Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology have discovered a key missing link in the so-called signaling pathway for plant steroid hormones (brassinosteroids).
Fungal map of mutations key to increasing enzyme production for bioenergy use
In half a century, one fungus has gone from being the bane of the Army quartermasters' existence in the Pacific to industry staple and someday, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's mission to promote national energy security through clean, renewable energy development, a biofuel producers' best friend.
Reject watermelons -- the newest renewable energy source
Watermelon juice can be a valuable source of biofuel. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Biotechnology for Biofuels have shown that the juice of reject watermelons can be efficiently fermented into ethanol.
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