Digestible unitsThe use of wood or plant waste in the production of chemicals and biofuels such as bioethanol has the advantage that such raw materials do not compete with
food production. However, the use of these so-called "second generation raw materials" is not yet ideal. Sugars found in wood in the form of lignocelluloses are not naturally well digested by the micro-organisms which convert biomass into usable raw materials. First these complex sugars have to be released and broken down into digestible units. This process gives rise to harmful by-products, including furans, which can have a strong inhibiting effect on the fermentation process.Degradation processResearchers Frank Koopman and Nick Wierckx discovered that the bacterium Cupriavidus basilensis is capable of breaking furans down into harmless waste products, while leaving the wood sugars untouched. Together with their supervisors, Koopman and Wierckx unlocked the secrets of the entire degradation process in the bacterium, identifying the genes and enzymes involved. In addition, they succeeded in introducing this entire degradation process into the bacterium Pseudomonas putida, an organism frequently used in industrial biotechnology, and which is not naturally capable of breaking down furans.Cost savingsSupervisor Han de Winde, Professor of Industrial Microbiology at TU Delft's Biotechnology Department takes up the story: "The fact that we now have a process for breaking down furans, not to mention one that can be successfully incorporated into other organisms, paves the way for removing these kinds of compounds during the production of second-generation chemicals and fuels from waste wood. This enables us to avoid the costly and environmentally unfriendly methods which are currently used to remove furans. That makes using wood waste as a sustainable raw material a much more attractive proposition."B-BASIC
Try our segmented RSS Feeds
