University of Illinois Engineer Hints at Economical, Efficient Biofuel Production

A metabolic engineer at the University of Illinois has taken an initiative for producing efficient and economical biofuels by way of developing a yeast strain that has an increased alcohol tolerance.

The biofuels are thus produced by way of fermentation of microbes of biomass crops that produce alcohol-based fuels such as iso-butanol and ethanol if yeast is made use of as the microbe for converting biomass sugars into biofuels.

However, such biofuels have a tendency to become toxic at a certain concentration level of the yeast that is used in the process. The goal of this particular study is towards finding out the gene or genes which reduce such toxic effects. These genes are expected to serve as essential components that form a part of the genetic toolbox towards breeding yeast that has a high ethanol tolerance level for the purpose of efficient ethanol fermentation.

The functions of such genes are unrelated and diverse; suggesting that the tolerance to high concentration levels of ethanol and iso-butanol might be involving complex interactions of numerous genetic elements present in the yeast. Further study of such genes will be boosting the alcohol tolerance of the genes even further, which will get translated into greater efficiency and cost savings during biofuel production.