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Department of Energy grant helps UT researchers create biofuels more efficiently |
| By
Jon Strunk |
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Sep 22, 2008
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Dr. Sasidhar Varanasi, professor of chemical engineering, and Dr. Patricia Relue, associate professor of bioengineering, are the recipients of a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to improve the efficiency of the production of ethanol from biomass to create more environmentally friendly fuels.
Using a multi-step process, Varanasi and Relue are creating the ethanol for biofuels out of poplar wood, switchgrass and corn stover, the leftover stalks and leaves that remain once the corn has been harvested.
“Unlike corn starch, biomass hydrolysis leads mainly to two different kinds of sugars: glucose and xylose,” Varanasi explained. “Glucose is very easy to convert into ethanol simply by using native yeast. This grant is to further our work in developing a method to also convert xylose and generate more ethanol from the same amount of biomass.”
Varanasi said he and Relue have developed a catalyst that will allow the native yeast to ferment both sugars, which, depending on the biomass, will increase ethanol production by 30 percent or more.
“Others have tried genetically engineering yeast to enable it to convert both sugars; however, these engineered yeasts are patented and not widely available,” Varanasi said. “Our process will allow us to use unmodified, native yeast.”
Varanasi has been conducting biofuel research at UT for three years and has partnered with SuGanit Systems, a company housed in UT’s Alternative Energy Incubator. Three different patents have been licensed to Suganet in that time.
“The efficiency of creating ethanol is key for cellulosic ethanol to be a cost-effective replacement for gasoline,” Varanasi said, “and the research we’re doing at UT is an important part of perfecting that efficiency.”
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