Biofuels like ethanol are all the talk these days with ever increasing gas prices. The problem with ethanol is that it can only be made from sugars in plants like corn. Ethanol is made by fermenting sugars called hexoses with yeast. This is the most edible part of the plant. So think of a stalk of corn. It’s really tall and leafy. Then there’s the ear of corn that’s wrapped up in even more leaves. The only part of the plant that can be converted into ethanol is the white stuff inside the kernel. That’s a lot of waste.
Researchers in the Netherlands have found a way to make ethanol from agricultural waste (all those corn stalks and leaves) with the help of an enzyme found in the gut of Indian elephants and also fungus. The enzyme was actually discovered in elephant poop in 1984 and allows the elephants to convert pentose sugars like xylose to xylulose. Blah, blah, blah…what is she talking about? Simply put, we can’t digest pentose sugars and nether can yeast. This enzyme breaks down pentose sugars to something digestible.
The researchers in the Netherlands have taken the gene that produces this enzyme and have cloned into yeast except they used the gene isolated from a fungus. This gene allows the yeast to break down both kinds of sugars and improve the yield of bioethanol. There are still a few glitches. The yeast can’t tolerate the acids produced when the sugars are freed from plants, but the team has plans for making the yeast resistant and predict that they will be applied for ethanol production within the next five years.
So what do you think of biofuel? Do you think we’ll actually have a mass-produced, cost-effective fuel alternative any time soon? I’m thinking the oil magnates will find some way to block it.
Reading this entry brought back memories of 3323 and the nightmare that is mine related to teaching audience. I had several students write extended definitions (later transformed into brochures) explaining what a particular alternative fuel is along with its benefits. I never had much luck getting students to target an audience beyond “anyone who doesn’t know.” The facts speak for themselves, so it seems. How will the audience *use* the information? That doesn’t matter either.
The more people we have shouting for alternative fuel sources, the more likely we are to get it. If we refuse to buy cars that run on traditional gas maybe, just maybe, the industries will get it. The only reason they’re still in this business is because people keep buying them.
Biofuels are great, but it’s going to take a combination of biofuels and electricity to get us where we need to be.