New Enzyme Could Cut Cost of Ethanol Made From Waste

The New York Times
February 22, 2012, 12:01 am
By DIANE CARDWELL

It is one of the holy grails of clean energy production: finding a way to make ethanol from the cellulose in biowaste like corn husks and household trash. Although several pilot projects are up and running — with many more in the pipeline — commercial production has remained elusive, with the costs remaining much higher than for producing ethanol from corn, or gasoline.

But in what may come as welcome news to oil companies that are paying penalties for failing to use cellulosic ethanol — a biofuel that, commercially speaking, does not yet exist — a big producer of industrial enzymes has developed an enzyme that can help wring more ethanol out of cellulose at a lower cost.

The company, Novozymes, already makes enzymes used to make numerous products, including household detergents, soft drinks and stonewashed denim. It plans to announce the new enzyme, Cellic CTec3, on Wednesday in advance of the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Fla.

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