While oil is becoming scarcer and more expensive, and concerns about global warming are increasing, modern society is still hugely dependent on fossil fuels. Fortunately, there are alternatives based on renewable resources, and in correlation with increasing oil prices and wells running dry, these alternatives are becoming more and more economically viable.
Second generation of biofuel
Novozymes has already developed enzymes that can transform corn and wheat into fuel ethanol. However, a report from the US National Corn Growers’ Association claims that bioethanol from starch and sugar can meet no more than 10% of North America’s fuel consumption (the current level is 3%). Therefore several companies and government-sponsored research teams have intensified their investigations into the field of fuel-production from cellulose in biomass instead.
Cellulose is an abundant, readily available resource found in all kinds of plant material including waste products such as corn cobs and stalks, wood pulp, wood chips, sugar cane leaves and rice straw. The focus of all this research is on enzymes because the sugars needed can be provided by the enzymatic breakdown of the cellulose in biomass.
Bringing costs further down
By now, Novozymes already has some promising enzymes that are currently subject to examination in pilot plants in the USA. However, a commercially viable solution is still some years off, as the performance of the enzymes needs to be improved in order to bring costs down even further. Even so, once the new technology becomes commercial, it can initiate a whole industry to convert biomass into fuel alcohol – and then the headline to this article will most probably hit the front pages all over the world.