New Yeasts Could Help Fast-Track Biofuel Production

USDA ARS
By Ann Perry
July 28, 2009

A new yeast that makes ethanol from both five-carbon and six-carbon sugars without needing oxygen has been developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist.

This could be an important breakthrough in industrial ethanol production, because it’s difficult to control oxygen levels as yeasts ferment sugars into ethanol. The new yeast strain would help alleviate this problem.

Producers already make grain ethanol by using yeast to ferment six-carbon plant sugars like glucose. But cost-effective production of cellulosic ethanol will require using both six-carbon and five-carbon sugars in the process.

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