{"id":54154,"date":"2018-07-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rss.nova-institut.net\/public.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.azocleantech.com%2Fnews.aspx%3FnewsID%3D25635"},"modified":"2018-06-28T11:05:37","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T09:05:37","slug":"new-enzyme-boost-could-hasten-biofuel-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-enzyme-boost-could-hasten-biofuel-production\/","title":{"rendered":"New enzyme boost could hasten biofuel production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imperial scientists have enhanced the process of using biology to make products such as fuels, plastics, medicines, and cosmetics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This could lead to cheaper and more environmentally friendly biofuel production and more efficient plastic recycling.<\/p>\n

Bioprocessing, which uses living cells or their components to make products like biofuels, plastics, medicines, and cosmetics, is time consuming and expensive.<\/p>\n

Now, Imperial scientists say they can break down plant-based biomass 30 times faster than currently possible. The findings are published in Nature Chemistry.<\/p>\n

If this new technique is taken up on a large scale, fuel-related carbon emissions could fall by 80-100 per cent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr Alex Brogan, of Imperial College London\u2019s Department of Chemical Engineering, and colleagues modified the glucosidase enzyme, which helps break down complex carbohydrates in biomass, like cellulose from plant cells, into its basic units, glucose. The glucose can then be fermented to make ethanol, a form of biofuel.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve made bioprocessing faster, which will require less equipment and will reduce carbon footprint.
\nDr Alex Brogan
\nDepartment of Chemical Engineering<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Biofuels are fuels made from living matter like plants, otherwise called biomass. They emit far less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, so are far better for the environment.<\/p>\n

Releasing glucose from cellulose is currently the most expensive and time consuming part of the process. This is partly because enzymes typically stop working at temperatures higher than 70 \u00b0C and when in industrial solvents like ionic liquids.<\/p>\n

However, if the enzyme could work in higher temperatures and ionic liquids, the conditions would hasten the process.<\/p>\n

Breaking barriers<\/h2>\n

To make glucosidase more robust, Dr Brogan and colleagues altered its chemical structure to let it withstand heat of up to 137 \u00b0C. The alteration also meant they could use the enzyme in ionic liquids instead of the usual water, and that they could use only one enzyme instead of three.<\/p>\n

\"20180530---glu-01--tojpeg_1529925848764_x2\"
Imperial scientists altered the glucosidase enzyme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They found that the combined effect of heat resistance and solubility in ionic liquids increased the glucose output 30-fold.<\/p>\n

If this new technique is taken up on a large scale, fuel-related carbon emissions could fall by 80-100 per cent.<\/p>\n

Using biofuels made from corn starch, trees and other plant matter for vehicles and even electricity generation could massively reduce carbon emissions.
\nDr Jason Hallett
\nDepartment of Chemical Engineering<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lead author Dr Brogan said: \u201cWe\u2019ve made bioprocessing faster, which will require less equipment and will reduce carbon footprint. One major advantage of this will be increased biofuel production \u2013 potentially helping biofuels become more widespread as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior author Dr Jason Hallett, also from Imperial\u2019s Department of Chemical Engineering, said: \u201cUsing biofuels made from corn starch, trees and other plant matter for vehicles and even electricity generation could massively reduce carbon emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alteration could be applied to a wide variety of enzymes, for a wide range of applications, such as making fuels from waste and recycling plastics, and can make bioprocessing more efficient.<\/p>\n

This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).<\/p>\n

Diamond Light Source, which is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Wellcome Trust, provided access to the B23 and I22 synchrotron beamlines where researchers measured enzyme thermal stability and structure.<\/p>\n

\u201dNon-aqueous homogenous biocatalytic conversion of polysaccharides in ionic liquids using chemically modified glucosidase\u201d by Alex P. S. Brogan, Liem Bui-Le and Jason P. Hallett, published 15 June 2018 in Nature Chemistry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imperial researchers have improved the process of using biology to create products such as fuels, me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5818,5842],"supplier":[5087,5159,336,6678,9491],"class_list":["post-54154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biofuel","tag-biomass","supplier-diamond-light-source","supplier-engineering-and-physical-sciences-research-council-epsrc","supplier-imperial-college-london","supplier-nature-chemistry","supplier-wellcome-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54154"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=54154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}