Chemists boost biofuel production
3 Oct 2014
Chemical engineers in the US have modified yeast tolerance to enhance biofuel production capacity, new research suggests.
Large concentrations of ethanol can be toxic to the yeast that is used to transform corn and other plant materials into biofuels, limiting the production capacity of many yeast strains used in industry.
“Toxicity is probably the single most important problem in cost-effective biofuels production,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) chemical engineer Gregory Stephanopoulos, who led the study on industrial biofuel production.
Toxicity is probably the single most important problem in cost-effective biofuels production
MIT chemical engineer Gregory Stephanopoulos
Now, however, Stephanopoulos, alongside a research team at MIT, claims to have identified a new way to boost yeast tolerance to ethanol by altering the composition of the medium in which certain yeasts are grown.
According to researchers, ethanol and other alcohols can disrupt yeast cell membranes, eventually killing the cells.
The MIT team discovered that adding potassium and hydroxide ions to the medium in which yeast grow can help cells compensate for the cellular membrane damage.
In making these changes, the researchers were able to boost yeast’s ethanol production by around 80%.
For further details on this research, please visit our sister publication Laboratorytalk.com.
