Novozymes: new funding for bioethanol project
of Energy (DOE) has approved the third year of funding for
Novozymes' three-year subcontract to develop more cost-efficient
enzymes for ethanol production.
Danish company Novozymes announced yesterday that the US Department of Energy (DOE) has approved the third year of funding for Novozymes' three-year subcontract to develop more cost-efficient enzymes for ethanol production.
The DOE subcontract has the goal of reducing the cost of enzymes for bioethanol production by 10-fold.
"The primary strategy of the biomass program," said David Garman, assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, "is to develop and deploy technologies for the creation of a new Biorefinery Industry to produce fuels and chemicals. The Novozymes partnership will deliver key enzymes systems to enable the new Biorefinery industry to expand and provide the opportunity for broader uses of renewable energy."
One of the applications of bioethanol is replacement of the gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). Several states in the USA either have phased out or are planning to phase out the use of MTBE as oxygenate in gasoline for the transportation sector.
The company added this week that it hopes that new enzymes discovered during the research subcontract with the DOE can be turned into new products to bolster its market presence. The US fuel ethanol market is growing at a rapid rate of around 20 per cent annually.
