MicroBioGen’s Game-Changing Second-Generation Bioethanol Research

Australia, Biorefinery/Fuel Production Infrastructure, Co-Products, Denmark, Funding/Financing/Investing, grants, Infrastructure, Process, R & D Focus, Sustainability, Yeast

July 15, 2021

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by Melody Labinsky (Farm Weekly) For Australian biotechnology company MicroBioGen, the solution to creating more commercially viable bioethanol ‘just grew on them’. The company has been able to demonstrate the production of both high-protein food and low carbon bioethanol from non-food material using a single biological agent.

And it’s all thanks to a genetically modified version of the common yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Researchers uncovered the bioethanol breakthrough after 15 years of research and development in MicroBioGen’s Sydney laboratories.

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The technology was developed in collaboration with global partner Novozymes and was funded in part with a $4 million grant from the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

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Second-generation ethanol is produced from agricultural waste products such as timber offcuts, crop residues or bagasse. This material can be difficult to break down into component sugars using conventional yeasts and is relatively costly.

MicroBioGen’s yeast agent overcomes these barriers and peer-reviewed research has found it uses less energy and produces fewer emissions.

When compared with benchmark commercial second-generation yeast strains, MicroBioGen’s product was found to reduce water use by 75 per cent and CO2 emissions by 29pc. READ MORE

Food or Fuel? Australian Biotech Adapts Yeast to Give us Both (Bio Market Insights)

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