Researchers find fix for Ethanol production

Who
Mark Goebl, professor of biochemistry and microbiology at the IU School of Medicine  and three of his former students: Josh Heyen and Ross Cockling, who earned their doctoral degrees from the IU School of Medicine, and Ball State University biostatistics student Cary Wood.

What did they find?
While researching yeast during his graduate work in Goebl’s lab, Heyen discovered a strain that yields the byproduct cellulosic ethanol and is able to break down cellulose.

This yeast, which usually only consumes glucose to produce ethanol, is engineered to consume anything and everything it crosses.

“Our yeast doesn’t care what it eats,” Goebl said. “It will produce twice the amount of ethanol from the same amount of material.”

This yeast could potentially increase fermentation yields by 30 to 50 percent in cellulosic ethanol production facilities, according to the Xylogenics, Inc. website.

Xylogenics, Inc. is the company the researchers founded in 2008 to market their product.

What's the big deal?
This discovery will allow researchers to manipulate corn that produces ethanol fuel to use the stalk and fibers surrounding the ear of corn, rather than the actual food product, which feeds people and animals.

The cellulosic ethanol could provide an option that would produce ethanol from many different products, rather than just corn, which impacts ethanol production, Goebl said.
 
“At $2.50 to $3 a gallon, we’re talking about a major impact on the profits of ethanol production, while at the same time we are using less organic material, less water and producing a more environmentally friendly product,” Goebl said in a press release.

What it means for you:
Ethanol can 

– replace regular gasoline, which would reduce dependence on foreign oil
– cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost 80 percent
– revive rural economies

— Katie Mettler