A Thermophilic Microbe - Solution to make Cellulosic Ethanol a Reality!

TMO Renewables, a world leader in cellulosic ethanol production, in late June, developed a fermentation technique using a thermophilic bacterium, which can digest the cellulosic biomass rapidly to produce ethanol. This will be more useful in warm countries as they bacterium thrive well. The new process helps to produce ethanol from any cellulose-based material, most notably corn, domestic waste (paper, food) and second-generation feedstock such as leftovers from agriculture and industry such as straw from cereal crops, doing so in a highly-economical way that is practically carbon neutral.

The funny thing here is England, because of its weather might not be able to use this heat-loving bacterium in their country. There are better prospects for this in countries such as the U.S and representatives from this British company claim that about 25 ethanol plant owners have expressed interest in TMO’s process, TMO has also invited the attention of China, who are also interested in converting the rice husks and forest waste in their country into biofuels.

Apparently, TMO has not received any public support from their own country, wherein the government policies in UK haven’t offered enough support because of which the biofuel industry has not shown considerable improvement in neither growth nor investments.

The advantage offered by this bacterium is that, it very easily digests the cellulosic biomass and converts it rapidly into bioenergy.

1. This bacterium produces ethanol rapidly; it doesn’t require much of heating or cooling, hence the energy required is very less. Most importantly, this organism can maintain itself at a very high temperature and to distill ethanol from the beer doesn’t require any additional input of energy.

2. This organism has the ability of digesting the longer chain sugars of the cellulosic biomass, thereby reducing the pre-treatment costs to a considerable extent.

3. Interestingly, the fermentation process is so rapid that the capital costs on fermentation vessels can also be minimized .On the whole the entire process can be made economically viable.


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