• What we do
  • The People
  • About Us
  • Why Innovation Africa
  • Contact Us
Innovation AfricaCreating the Future Today
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Team uses a cellulosic biofuels byproduct to increase ethanol yield

    October 13, 2013 Editor 0

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists report in Nature Communications that they have engineered yeast to consume acetic acid, a previously unwanted byproduct of the process of converting plant leaves, stems and other tissues into biofuels. The innovation increases ethanol yield from lignocellulosic sources by about 10 percent.

    Lignocellulose is the fibrous material that makes up the structural tissues of plants. It is one of the most abundant raw materials on the planet and, because it is rich in carbon it is an attractive source of renewable biomass for biofuels production.

    The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is good at fermenting simple sugars (such as those found in corn kernels and sugarcane) to produce ethanol. But coaxing the yeast to feast on plant stems and leaves is not so easy. Doing it on an industrial scale requires a number of costly steps, one of which involves breaking down hemicellulose, a key component of lignocellulose.

    “If we decompose hemicellulose, we obtain xylose and acetic acid,” said University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor Yong-Su Jin, who led the research with principal investigator Jamie Cate, of the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Jin and Cate are affiliates of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), which funded the research. Jin also is an affiliate of the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.

    “Xylose is a sugar; we can engineer yeast to ferment xylose,” Jin said. “However, acetic acid is a toxic compound that kills yeast. That is one of the biggest problems in cellulosic ethanol production.”

    In an earlier study, graduate student Soo Rin Kim (now an EBI fellow) engineered S. cerevisiae to more efficiently consume xylose. This improved ethanol output, but the process generated an excess of NADH, an electron-transfer molecule that is part of the energy currency of all cells. The buildup of acetic acid also killed off much of the yeast.

    After discussing the problem with Jin, Cate had an idea – perhaps the team could induce the yeast to consume acetic acid. It later occurred to Jin that that process might also use up the surplus NADH from xylose metabolism.

    By reviewing earlier studies, postdoctoral researcher Na Wei found that another organism, a bacterium, could consume acetic acid. She identified the enzymes that catalyzed this process and saw that one of them not only converted acetic acid into ethanol, but also would use the surplus NADH from xylose metabolism.

    The team was not ready to start putting the genes into their yeast, however. They first had to determine whether their efforts were likely to succeed.

    “One challenge with yeast is it has evolved to do one thing really well,” Cate said. “When you start adding these new modules into what it’s already doing, it’s not obvious that it’s going to work up front.”

    To get a better idea of the feasibility of the idea, graduate student Josh Quarterman used computer simulations to see how adding the new genes to the yeast’s metabolic repertoire would affect its ethanol output. His calculations indicated that the pathway Wei had identified would boost ethanol production.

    The new advance will streamline the fermentation process and will simplify plant breeding and pretreatment of the cellulose, the researchers say. The new advance will streamline the fermentation process and will simplify plant breeding and pretreatment of the cellulose, the researchers say.

    Next, Wei did the painstaking work of inserting the desirable genes into the yeast, a process that took several months. When she tested the yeast, she saw that it produced about 10 percent more ethanol than before, in line with Quarterman’s calculations. In further experiments, she demonstrated that the new yeast was in fact making some of the ethanol from acetate, a first for S. cerevisiae.

    “We sort of rebuilt how yeast uses carbon,” Cate said.

    The breakthrough also will help those who focus on other steps in the biofuels production process, Jin said. Plant geneticists and those involved in pretreatment can stop worrying about finding ways to eliminate acetic acid from lignocellulose, he said.

    “Many people are curious about why we don’t have cellulosic biofuel right now,” Jin said. “But it’s not because of one limiting step. We have many limiting steps in growing the biomass, storing, moving, harvesting, decomposing the biomass to the sugar, fermentation and then separation (of the ethanol). The advance that we are reporting involves one of those steps – fermentation. But it also will make other steps in the process a little easier.”

    Related Posts

    • Project  overcomes challenges to deliver mushroom and electricity from agro-industrial wasteProject overcomes challenges to deliver mushroom and electricity from agro-industrial waste
    • ASU, Georgia Tech create breakthrough for solar cell efficiencyASU, Georgia Tech create breakthrough for solar cell efficiency
    • Green energy requires an investment in chemistryGreen energy requires an investment in chemistry
    • To Strengthen Your Attention Span, Stop Overtaxing ItTo Strengthen Your Attention Span, Stop Overtaxing It
    • Should You Automate Your Life So that You Can Work Harder?Should You Automate Your Life So that You Can Work Harder?
    • The Art of Knowledge Exchange: A Primer for Government Officials and Development PractitionersThe Art of Knowledge Exchange: A Primer for Government Officials and Development Practitioners
    Sovrn
    Share

    Categories: Biofuel

    Tags: Anaerobic digestion, Cellulosic ethanol, chemistry, ethanol, Fermentation, Household chemicals, Lignocellulosic biomass, Oenology, Xylose metabolism

    Make Your Innovative Idea Seem Less Terrifying A pilot biomedical engineering course in rapid prototyping for mobile health.

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to our stories


 

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions September 21, 2020
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics August 3, 2020
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey! August 3, 2020
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic August 3, 2020
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations August 3, 2020

Categories

Archives

Popular Post-All time

  • A review on biomass-based... 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt ge... 697 views
  • Prize-winning projects pr... 692 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 610 views
  • Test Your Value Propositi... 537 views

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey!
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations
  • SME Innovation: 10 Priorities for Support Post-COVID-19 
  • Africa RISING Annual Progress Report 2018 – 2019 now available
  • Fodder beet feed supplementation delivers dairy success for Ethiopian farmers
  • Using theory of change for outcome-oriented research
  • Africa RISING partners publish soil fertility management guidebook

Tag Cloud

    africa African Agriculture Business Business model Business_Finance Company Crowdsourcing data Development East Africa economics Education Entrepreneur entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship ethiopia ghana Health_Medical_Pharma ict Information technology Innovation kenya knowledge Knowledge Management Leadership marketing mobile Mobile phone nigeria Open innovation Organization Research rwanda science Science and technology studies social enterprise social entrepreneurship south africa Strategic management strategy tanzania Technology Technology_Internet uganda

Categories

Archives

  • A review on biomass-based hydrogen production for renewable energy supply 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt gender inequality? 697 views
  • Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments 692 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Big Data Innovations in Agriculture 610 views
  • Test Your Value Proposition: Supercharge Lean Startup and CustDev Principles 537 views

Copyright © 2005-2020 Innovation Africa Theme created by PWT. Powered by WordPress.org