Yeast Plus Agricultural Wastes Equals Ethanol

Environment News Service, June, 2004

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (ENS) — A strain of yeast developed at Purdue University makes ethanol from agricultural residues more effectively than other yeast strains.

Purdue's genetically altered yeast allows about 40 percent more ethanol to be made from sugars derived from agricultural residues, such as corn stalks and wheat straw, compared with "wild-type" yeasts that occur in nature.

The agricultural residues are made up of cellulose and hemicellulose, known as cellulosic materials. These are materials such as wheat straw that would otherwise be discarded or used as animal feed.

Unlike traditional ethanol feedstocks, such as corn kernels, the cellulosic materials contain two major sugars, glucose and xylose.

Neither sugar can be fermented into...

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