The detoxifying ability of yeast allows simultaneous detoxification and fermentation during ethanol production. However, the inhibitor conversion rate by normal baker’s yeast is usually low, in particular considering high inhibitor concentration.
A few yeast strains can naturally convert xylose into ethanol via xylulose 5-phosphate. However, until now such yeasts have exhibited low inhibitor tolerance so far. The main aim of this project is to develop a yeast strain with high inhibitor tolerance that can efficiently convert both C5 and C6 sugars into ethanol.When a promising strain is obtained, lab-scale fermentation of pre-treated lignocellulose by this strain will be carried out in bioreactor. General growth features, ethanol yield and productivity, sugar tolerance, ethanol tolerance, inhibitor tolerance will be tested in reactors. Participants: This project is funded by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation as part of the platform project “development of 2nd generation bioethanol”. It is a collaboration with 9 partners: DONG Energy A/S, Novozymes A/S, Topsøe Fuel Cell A/S, BioGasol ApS, Statoil A/S, Energi Industrien (Dansk Industri), KU (Faculty of Life Sciences) and RISØ DTU.
Duration: This project runs from 2008 to 2010.
Employees involved: Xiaoru Hou, Klaus Breddam, Anne Belinda Thomsen
Page updated by --- 08.10.2010