University of Warwick research helps with biofuel technology

RESEARCH undertaken by the University of Warwick has led to an important breakthrough that could make sustainable sources of biofuels more commercially viable.

Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology (IBTI) Club, the research has identified an enzyme in bacteria which could be used to make biofuel production more efficient.

The research, published in the latest issue of the American Chemical Society journal Biochemistry, was jointly conducted with the University of British Columbia.

The researchers have discovered an enzyme which is important in breaking down lignin, one of the components of the woody parts of plants. Lignin is important in making plants sturdy and rigid but, because it is difficult to break down, it makes extracting the energy-rich sugars used to produce bioethanol more difficult.

Fast-growing woody plants and the inedible by-products of crops could both be valuable sources of biofuels but it is difficult to extract enough sugar from them for the process to be economically viable. Using an enzyme to break down lignin would allow more fuel to be produced from the same amount of plant mass.

The researchers identified the gene for breaking down lignin in a soil-living bacterium. Although such enzymes have been found before in fungi, this is the first time they have been identified in bacteria.

Professor Timothy Bugg, from the University of Warwick, who led the research team, said: “For biofuels to be a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels we need to extract the maximum possible energy available from plants. By raising the exciting possibility of being able to produce lignin-degrading enzymes from bacteria on an industrial scale this research could help unlock currently unattainable sources of biofuels.

“By making woody plants and the inedible by-products of crops economically viable the eventual hope is to be able to produce biofuels that don’t compete with food production.”