VTT to Develop Enzymes Found in Wildfire-Prone Areas

( VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland/Ethanol Producer Magazine) Micro-organisms found in the wildfire-prone dry tropical forests of India are an exciting prospect for biochemical production, as they are accustomed to the challenging conditions following a forest fire. The enzymes they produce are likely to also have a higher-than-normal resistance to the substances released from biomass in high-temperature industrial processes. An EU and nationally funded project led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, called IndZyme, is looking to study whether they are capable of breaking down agricultural waste better than commercial enzymes.

Converting the lignocellulose in biomass into fermentable sugars and ultimately biochemicals with the help of enzymes requires first breaking down the tough lignocellulosic structure. The technology already exists, but the inhibitors generated by the process reduce the effectiveness of the enzymes. Inhibitors are chemical compounds that prevent or hinder enzyme activity. Enzymes that are more resistant to inhibitors could help to lower enzyme costs and increase the sugar yield.

The Indian research partner in IndZyme, Vinstrom, has collected microbial cultures from wildfire-prone areas of Indian forests and proven that they have a higher-than-normal resistance to inhibitor chemicals. During the project, these microbial cultures will be screened for new, more inhibitor-resistant cellulase enzymes as well as LPMO enzymes, whose activity may even be boosted by inhibitor chemicals. The next step will be studying the efficiency of these new enzymes in breaking down agricultural waste, such as straw, into fermentable sugars.

The IndZyme project consortium consists of VTT (Finland), VINSTROM (India), RWTH (Germany) and the University of Tartu (Estonia). Vinstrom will screen the microbial cultures, after which VTT will analyze them for the enzymes they produce. RWTH will fraction the inhibitor compounds generated by biomass processing, after which VTT and the University of Tartu will characterize the enzymes and study their interactions with inhibitors. The project is part of the EU's Inno Indigo program, which aims to increase research cooperation between Europe and India. READ MORE