With the current drive towards production of alternative fuels from
plant material, enzymes which can break down this material into useable
compounds are required in industrial quantities and at a low cost. One
group of scientists from Texas A&M University have come up with a
solution: using plants to make the enzymes. Professor Zivko Nikolov, who
leads the Bioseparations Lab, will describe their research on Monday 7th
July at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Marseille
[Session P2].
Traditional methods of generating enzymes for biofuel production
currently operate at over five times the target cost required to make the
fuels financially competitive. By using plants which have been engineered
to make the proteins, Professor Nikolov believes that the target can be
met. His group, which has expertise in the development of economic
processing techniques, have designed processing strategies which allow
multiple products to be obtained from each crop, making the whole process
more economically viable. "One of our projects focuses on producing
cellulases, enzymes which can break down biomass, in maize seed. By
carefully designing the processing chain, from a single crop of maize we
can deliver oil that can be turned into biodiesel, cellulose that can be
used to make other biofuels, and fibre and protein which can be used as
animal feed, as well, of course as the enzymes themselves," he reveals.
"These multiple products offset the outlay on the enzyme purification
process, meaning we can make enzymes far more cost-effectively than is
achievable using traditional fermentation methods, a result which we can
also see in a similar sugarcane processing project."
In the 1990s there was much interest in using plants to make both
industrial enzymes and pharmaceuticals, but in the last five years such
industrial enzyme developments have gone out of fashion, largely due to
production costs that simply weren't viable, combined with public unease.
Now Professor Nikolov's group have brought this technology back into the
picture. "The economic improvements that we have delivered to the
processing pathway, combined with a greater public acceptance of
transgenic plants, mean that we can now develop the full potential of this
technology. This in turn will bring us a step closer to the vital
challenge of generating cheap alternative fuels over the coming decades,"
he concludes.
SOURCE: Society for Experimental Biology