Engineered Microorganisms for Cost-Effective Cellulosic Biofuel Production
Mascoma Corporation today announced that the company has made major research advances in consolidated bioprocessing, or CBP, a low-cost processing strategy for production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass. CBP avoids the need for the costly production of cellulase enzymes by using engineered microorganisms that produce cellulases and ethanol at high yield in a single step.CBP is widely considered to be the ultimate low-cost configuration for cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation.The advances of the research includes both bacteria that grow at high temperatures, called thermophiles, and recombinant cellulolytic yeasts.
The first report of targeted metabolic engineering of a cellulose-fermenting thermophile, Clostridium thermocellum, leading to a reduced production of unwanted organic acid byproducts and makes possible production of nearly 6% wt/vol ethanol by an increase of 60% over what was reported just a year ago. Selected strains of C. thermocellum that can rapidly consume cellulose with high conversion and no added cellulase, and grow on cellulose in the presence of commercial levels of ethanol.
Recombinant, Cellulolytic Yeast facilitates 3,000-fold increase in cellulase expression and a significant 2.5-fold reduction in the added cellulase required for conversion of pretreated hardwood to ethanol.These advances enable the reduction in operating and capital costs required for cost-effective commercial production of ethanol, bringing Mascoma substantially closer to commercialization.
see more
The first report of targeted metabolic engineering of a cellulose-fermenting thermophile, Clostridium thermocellum, leading to a reduced production of unwanted organic acid byproducts and makes possible production of nearly 6% wt/vol ethanol by an increase of 60% over what was reported just a year ago. Selected strains of C. thermocellum that can rapidly consume cellulose with high conversion and no added cellulase, and grow on cellulose in the presence of commercial levels of ethanol.
Recombinant, Cellulolytic Yeast facilitates 3,000-fold increase in cellulase expression and a significant 2.5-fold reduction in the added cellulase required for conversion of pretreated hardwood to ethanol.These advances enable the reduction in operating and capital costs required for cost-effective commercial production of ethanol, bringing Mascoma substantially closer to commercialization.
see more
Labels: biofuels, cellulose, costs, ethanol, research
PermaLink - Engineered Microorganisms for Cost-Effective Cellulosic Biofuel Production
