Two years ago, researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the UK and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the USA identified an enzyme capable of degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET), called PETase. Now, an enzyme found in the rubbish dwelling bacterium that lives on a diet of plastic bottles has been combined with PETase to create a ‘super enzyme’ to speed up the breakdown of plastic.
DuPont awarded grant for high-efficiency biogas enzyme production [Registered]
US-based DuPont Industrial Biosciences has secured a grant from the European Commission (EC) to demonstrate high-efficiency enzyme production that would increase biogas yields.
Novozymes launches an enzyme to control foam during cane ethanol production [Registered]
The global biotech company Novozymes recently launched the Fermax enzyme protease that prevents foam development during sugarcane ethanol fermentation.
For an average size plant, trialling partners also experienced a cost reduction of up to 20% when using Fermax, as compared with use of chemicals, Novozymes reports.
Rubisco identified as the key enzyme for increasing crop productivity [Registered]
Researchers at Lancaster University, with support from the University of Illinois, have made an important advance in understanding the natural diversity of a key plant enzyme which could help address the looming threat of global food security.
DuPont launches productive fermentation system for corn-based ethanol [Registered]
DuPont’s Industrial Biosciences unit has launched its Synerxia Fermentation System which it claims to increase corn-based ethanol productivity by 2% while reducing loss of sugars to distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) by 25%. DDGS, a by-product of corn ethanol production is sold as animal feed.
Microalgae Botryococcus braunii yields an enzyme to produce drop-in fuel [Registered]
The green microalgae Botryococcus braunii is considered a promising biofuel feedstock producer due to its prodigious accumulation of hydrocarbon oils that can be converted into fuels. B. braunii Race L produces the C40 tetraterpenoid hydrocarbon lycopadiene via an uncharacterized biosynthetic pathway. A team of international researchers announced this week that it has successfully isolated the enzyme responsible for this hydrocarbon production and are looking to use it to make biofuels en masse.
Modus operandi of cellulase enzyme decoded [Registered]
Research led by Matthew Lang at Vanderbilt University involved cellulase produced by the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei, one of the microorganisms used commercially to decompose cellulose. T. reesei produces a cocktail of three different enzymes that it uses for this purpose, 60 percent of which (by mass) is TrCel7A.
Monthly Snapshot
Raw sugar for March delivery settled at 19.82 cents/pound on January 18 after reaching a two-and-a-half-week high earlier in the session at 20.25 cents. The white sugar contract expiring in […]
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