Ho, Nancy W. Y. THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SAFE, COST-EFFECTIVE, GREEN PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE TRANSPORTATION FUEL
Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (nwyho@ecn.purdue.edu)
Ethanol is the ideal liquid fuel to replace gasoline for transportation. It can be produced from plant cellulosic biomass (agricultural residues, wood, grasses, municipal paper wastes, etc.), which is renewable and available domestically in great abundance and at low cost. However, one serious obstacle for this conversion is that the major sugars derived from cellulosic biomass include not only glucose, but also a substantial amount of xylose. Saccharomyces yeasts, the most effective, hazard-free, and user-friendly sugar-fermenting microorganisms, are unable to utilize xylose both aerobically and anaerobically. Furthermore, no other known naturally occurring microorganisms effectively ferment xylose to ethanol. In this paper, I will present an overview on our development of metabolically engineered Saccharomyces yeasts to effectively coferment glucose and xylose to ethanol. I will also discuss the advantages of using these recombinant yeasts for the production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass.