New protein probes find enzymes for biofuel production

New protein probes are now helping scientists find the best biomass-to-biofuel production enzymes that nature has to offer. Turning biomass into biofuel hinges on the breakdown of the energy-rich primary component of plant ...

Powerful enzymes create ethanol from agricultural harvest waste

The DISCO project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed powerful enzymes, which accelerate plant biomass conversion into sugars and further into products such as bioethanol. The project's results ...

Garbage bug may help lower the cost of biofuel

One reason that biofuels are expensive to make is that the organisms used to ferment the biomass cannot make effective use of hemicellulose, the next most abundant cell wall component after cellulose. They convert only the ...

Chemicals and biofuel from wood biomass

(PhysOrg.com) -- A method developed at Aalto University in Finland makes it possible to use microbes to produce butanol suitable for biofuel and other industrial chemicals from wood biomass. Butanol is particularly suited ...

A corny turn for biofuels from switchgrass

Many experts believe that advanced biofuels made from cellulosic biomass are the most promising alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels for a renewable, clean, green, domestic source of transportation energy. Nature, ...

Challenges for biofuels -- new life cycle assessment report

(PhysOrg.com) -- A combination of rising costs, shrinking supplies, and concerns about global climate change are spurring the development of alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels to meet our transportation energy needs. ...

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