Agrivida and corn that grows its own enzymes to preprocess cellulosic materials

A company is starting field trials of some corn they engineered with enzymes that degrade the corn stover for cellulosic bioenergy:

http://ethanolproducer.com/articles/8877/agrivida-launches-field-trials-to-test-modified-corn-stover

What is so cool about this approach is the enzymes are not activated until the corn stover is harvested and treated at 100 C (that is 212 F).  One of many approaches I think we are going to start to see to improve the bioenergy feedstocks, and thus make the whole process more economically feasible.

About these ads