Issue 41/2013 - New yeast strain is expected to reduce cellulosic ethanol production costs

The new yeast strain is expected to reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol production

Researchers at the U.
S.
Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed a new yeast strain, Clavispora NRRL Y-50464 (Y-50464), which promises to simplify cellulosic ethanol production and reduce costs
.

Zonglin Lewis Liu, a molecular biologist at the Agricultural Research Service, and his colleagues determined that this yeast strain can break down and ferment the sugars left behind in the cob after the compound xylose is
extracted.
The new yeast strain can withstand interference
from corn cob-derived compounds on its growth and fermentation rate.
It is capable of rapid growth at 98.
6°F, so both saccharification and fermentation (SSF) rates
can be optimized at the desired higher temperatures.

The researchers compared the reaction speed of Y-50464 with other yeast strains, which release and ferment the sugar
in corn cob residue after xylose extraction.
After the start of the trial, the new yeast strain was able to start consuming residues after 24 hours of a stable rate; And under the same conditions, the yeast used for comparison did not grow
.
The scientists compared the results of experiments with and without the addition of enzymes cellulase and β-glucosidase and found that the new yeast produced ethanol at a high rate without the addition of enzymes, so no additional enzyme was
required to produce cellulosic ethanol.
(Qian Bozhang)