Drawing Out More
Summary
With ethanol producers now wanting yeasts to seemingly do it all—tolerate high heat, drive throughput, offset inputs, reduce costs and lower carbon intensity—it would be understandable if product developers couldn’t meet every ask. In no particular order, producers want to make more corn oil; have levers to improve fermentation performance; the ability to convert even more starch and fiber; and strategic opportunities built into their yeast products. Innova Turbo was created for producers that want to turn up the dial on throughput but, in the past, have had a fear of plant upsets because yeast just weren’t fast enough or capable of tolerating high stress conditions. Z. Lewis Liu, a molecular biologist that previously worked at ARS said the new, “tough” strain also makes its own beta-glucosidase, an enzyme which catalyzes the breakdown of simple sugars like glucose from lignocellulose so they can be fermented into ethanol. “The key,” Liu added, “will be making critical process engineering improvements to the bioreactors now being used, including their ability to stir the cellulosic mix with high loads of fermentable solids.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author: Luke Geiver Contact: [email protected]