British researchers unlock sugar secret

Ethanol Producer Magazine
September 2010
By Kris Bevill
Posted Sept. 15, 2010

A long-term research project being funded by Britain’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council achieved a significant breakthrough recently when researchers successfully modified plant genes to more easily access the sugars locked inside lignocellulose. The finding could result in more cost-effective cellulosic ethanol conversion from plant matter such as corn stover and miscanthus, as well as woody biomass.

The research team’s discovery centered around the modification of enzymes that control xylan, one of the main components of lignocellulose. Approximately one-third of a plant’s sugars that could be used for ethanol production are locked away inside the xylan, according to lead researcher and University of Cambridge professor Paul Dupree. Until the discovery, it has been problematic for researchers to determine how to access those sugars. “We don’t understand how that sugar is locked away and why it’s difficult to release sugar that can be fermented,” Dupree said. “What we have discovered is one of the ways that the plant makes it difficult for us and how to overcome that. The consequences are that when this is deployed it should be cheaper and use less energy to release the sugars from maize stover, wheat straw, wood, and that makes [ethanol production] more economically viable.”

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