Turning up the heat on biofuels
Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 06:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —The production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass would benefit on several levels if carried out at temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius. Researchers with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have employed a promising technique for improving the ability of enzymes that break cellulose down into fermentable sugars to operate in this temperature range. Using this technique, they successfully engineered a high-temperature enzyme variant with greater activity and stability over the desired temperature range, and have shown that not all microbes are alike when it comes to making enzymes with improved properties.