In Massachusetts, the US Department of Energy awarded $100,000 to SunEthanol to further develop its patented C3 process, which combines hydrolysis and fermentation into a single step. The five-step project is a collaboration between SunEthanol, Texas A&M and UMass, and is based on SunEthanol’s proprietary Q Microbe.
Earlier this month, researchers at Michigan State have developed a process to insert enzymes used to break down cellulose, into crops such as corn. The process, which is just beginning a testing phase, would eliminate the need to insert the same genes in e.coli bacteria and breed the enzymes in large-scale, costly bioreactors. Instead, the enzymes would grow with the plant, using solar energy, and would be released when the plant is harvested and ground up. The process would also substantially reduce the energy inputs needed to produce cellulosic ethanol.
“Single-step” approaches to cellulosic ethanol have been in focus as companies attempt to reduce production cost. Earlier this month, Mascoma received another $10 million in financing with an equity investment by Marathon Oil. Mascoma’s “single-step” production system for cellulosic ethanol has attracted attention for its potential to eliminate cost and risk in scale-up towards commercial scale cellulosic ethanol.
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