Third Generation Biofuels: Corn with Embedded Cellulase Enzymes
A new variety of corn developed and patented by Michigan State University scientists could turn corn leaves and stalks into biofuels far more efficiently than existing techniques for cellulosic biofuels.
The variety of corn has cellulase enzymes embedded in its leaves. This makes it a crop typical of so-called 'third-generation' bioproducts - green fuels and products are made from energy and biomass crops that have been designed in such a way that their very structure or properties conform to the requirements of a particular bioconversion process. The MSU scientists have tricked corn in such a way that it already contains the needed enzymes itself, in its leaves.
An example of such third-generation biofuels are those based on tree crops whose lignin-content has been artificially weakened and reduced, and disintegrates easy under dedicated processing techniques. Low-lignin hybrid trees (poplars) are being developed by several research organisations, amongst them the laboratory of the father of plant genetic engineering, Marc van Montagu of the University of Ghent, Belgium.
Content credit: Mongabay
The variety of corn has cellulase enzymes embedded in its leaves. This makes it a crop typical of so-called 'third-generation' bioproducts - green fuels and products are made from energy and biomass crops that have been designed in such a way that their very structure or properties conform to the requirements of a particular bioconversion process. The MSU scientists have tricked corn in such a way that it already contains the needed enzymes itself, in its leaves.
An example of such third-generation biofuels are those based on tree crops whose lignin-content has been artificially weakened and reduced, and disintegrates easy under dedicated processing techniques. Low-lignin hybrid trees (poplars) are being developed by several research organisations, amongst them the laboratory of the father of plant genetic engineering, Marc van Montagu of the University of Ghent, Belgium.
Content credit: Mongabay
Labels: biofuels, cellulose, ethanol, research
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