Arbor Fuel engineers yeast to produce ethanol from lignocellulose without added enzymes

In Connecticut, a team from Arbor Fuel, reported in Bioresource Technology, the first example of ethanol fermentation from lignocellulosic biomass via simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) without addition of exogenously produced cellulases. In the research, the team used an engineered derivative of s. cerevisiae yeast to convert corn stover to ethanol.

The team writes that, previously: “Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most effective ethanol-producing microorganism, cannot depolymerize cellulose or ferment ethanol directly from cellulose. A consortium of enzymes (endoglucanase, exoglucanase and b-glucosidase) is needed to break down cellulose into fermentable glucose monomers (Lynd et al., 2002)…their high cost is a major limitation to economical utility due to the large amounts of cellulases required – more than 2.8 kg of protein is needed to ferment ethanol from 100 kg of pre- treated bagasse.”

The Elsevier  article is here;  for more information contact Steve Henck at Arbor Fuel here