Rot’s unique wood degrading machinery to be harnessed for better biofuels production

February 11, 2009 · Filed Under Ethanol, Fuels, Governments, Industry, Methanol

Science continues to find better and more efficient ways to break down the sugars in inedible biomass feedstock for bio-fuels. A few years ago critics talked about cellulosic ethanol as if it was a myth that should be ignored. Today, with plants already in production, cellulosic ethanol is a reality – and with continued research finding natural processes to help convert the feedstock to energy, the future of cellulosic ethanol looks bright.

The latest bug helping to break-down bio-mass is our long-time nemesis, wood rot…

An international team led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) have translated the genetic code that explains the complex biochemical machinery making brown-rot fungi uniquely destructive to wood. The same processes that provide easier access to the energy-rich sugar molecules bound up in the plant’s tenacious architecture are leading to innovations for the biofuels industry. The research, conducted by more than 50 authors, is reported in the February 4 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Among the challenges to more cost-effective production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass—the fibrous material of whole plants—is to find effective means to work around the polymer lignin, the scaffolding that endows the plant’s architecture with rigidity and protection from pests. By doing so, the organic compound cellulose—the long chain of glucose (sugar) units can be unbound, broken down, fermented, and distilled into liquid transportation fuel. This is where the destructive capabilities of rot come in.

“The microbial world represents a little explored yet bountiful resource for enzymes that can play a central role in the deconstruction of plant biomass—an early step in biofuel production,” said Eddy Rubin, Director of the DOE JGI, where the genome sequencing was conducted. “The brown-rot Postia placenta’s genome offers us a detailed inventory of the biomass-degrading enzymes that this and other fungi possess.”

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