Genetic modification techniques have revolutionized the way life sciences firms discover and produce drugs and vaccines. They’re also poised to transform how the world produces liquid fuel.
Advances in microbial science are powering the second generation of biofuel companies, ones that are looking to produce ethanol, diesel or other fuels from plant materials other than foodstuffs. These microbes, from bluegreen algae to e-coli to soil-residing organisms, have the potential to make the process of breaking down plants and distilling them into ethanol faster, simpler — and most importantly, cheaper — than first-generation cellulosic ethanol techniques.
“There’s a wealth of knowledge and technical know-how developed over decades in the biotechnology community,” said Una Ryan, founder of Waltham Technologies Inc., a startup genetically engineering bacteria to clean water and make biofuels. (She stepped down from the CEO role in December, but remains chairman of the company.) “It would be a terrible shame not to use that in the energy space. They need the skills that are aready there and are highly successful in the life sciences.”
Yet the impact of biofuels, and their synergies with biotech and cleantech, extend beyond a single emerging market. Indeed, many companies see a bright future in the industrial biotech space — if you can make ethanol or biodiesel out of plants, in theory you could make a host of other materials.
Single-cell organisms can play a major role in the complex process of breaking down plants, particularly non-food cellulose, and then fermenting it into ethanol. Traditional ethanol production uses enzymes to convert convert starchy grains into dextrose, a simple sugar, and yeast to convert the dextrose into ethanol. So-called first-generation cellulosic techniques take cornstalks, switchgrass or other plants, and pretreats them with solvents that allow the plants to be broken down by enzymes. The enzymes break cellulose into fermentable sugars, which are fermented and converted into ethanol by yeast.
Discovery of new microbes is changing the way scientists approach this chemical chain reaction. University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiology professor Susan Leschine’s discovery of a microbe in the Quabbin Reservoir that can both break down and ferment plant matter gave rise to startup Qteros Inc. The company is now tweaking the microbe to produce the right type and amount of enzymes ideal for turning non-food corn parts into ethanol.
“It’s the combination of that discovery part with bioengineering that will give us the biocatalysts we need in industry,” Leschine said.
If microbes can consolidate parts of cellulosic ethanol production or even reduce the intensity of the pretreatment process, they can help solve the industry‘s largest hurdles: scale and cost.
“What biotechnology has done is, you can have an organism that takes all of the chemical reactions and makes them one process, reducing complexity,” said Justin van Rooyen, senior director of business development at Lebanon, N.H., cellulosic ethanol startup Mascoma Corp. “From a chemical industry point of view, this is a massive advancement.”
About 75 percent of Mascoma’s research effort is focused on bioengineering yeast to produce enzymes that will break down the cellulose before fermentation — eliminating the step of adding a cocktail of enzymes before the yeast. So far, the company has been able to increase the expression of enzymes by yeast 3,000-fold.
Waltham Technologies’ contribution to the biofuels space, oils and enzymes that can be used for biodiesel, is a by-product of its original goal to clean water with bluegreen algae. Ryan said she was looking at the bacteria’s excretions from digesting waste and discovered that with some manipulation energy products could be produced.
“If you’re from the life sciences side of biotechnology, you tend to think of bacteria as a low cost manufacturing platform — what else can we do with this?” Ryan said.
The company is still testing the bacteria’s ability to produce oils, which would power waste treatment plant systems, creating a closed loop system. Its fate is unclear, however, as there is no immediate successor to Ryan, and the company has yet to secure venture funding.
Yet the use of genetic engineering techniques in biofuels production is not confined to microorganisms. Agrivida Inc., a Medford biofuels startup, received nearly $4.6 million in U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E funding and $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to alter the genome of feedstocks that will essentially break itself down. The company is developing gene sets that, when triggered, will produce an enzyme that will degrade the plant’s cell walls, making it easier to ferment the sugars into ethanol.
While it is clear how biotechnology can advance the energy space, biofuels executives say developments in the industry have applicability in the larger biotech space. Myriant Technologies LLC in Quincy is developing enzyme and fermentation technology that can produce a variety of industrial chemicals, including lactic acid and succinate acid. Biofuels are in the blood of Myriant — its founder, Stephen Gatto, was an early member of BC International, the predecessor of Verenium Corp. And with the help of advancements in biofuels, the company is exploring biofuel production as well as shifting some of its industrial chemical feedstocks to other cellulosic crops.
Yet the impact of biofuels, and their synergies with biotech and cleantech, extend beyond a single emerging market. Indeed, many companies see a bright future in the industrial biotech space — if you can make ethanol or biodiesel out of plants, in theory you could make a host of other materials.
Single-cell organisms can play a major role in the complex process of breaking down plants, particularly non-food cellulose, and then fermenting it into ethanol. Traditional ethanol production uses enzymes to convert convert starchy grains into dextrose, a simple sugar, and yeast to convert the dextrose into ethanol. So-called first-generation cellulosic techniques take cornstalks, switchgrass or other plants, and pretreats them with solvents that allow the plants to be broken down by enzymes. The enzymes break cellulose into fermentable sugars, which are fermented and converted into ethanol by yeast.
Discovery of new microbes is changing the way scientists approach this chemical chain reaction. University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiology professor Susan Leschine’s discovery of a microbe in the Quabbin Reservoir that can both break down and ferment plant matter gave rise to startup Qteros Inc. The company is now tweaking the microbe to produce the right type and amount of enzymes ideal for turning non-food corn parts into ethanol.
“It’s the combination of that discovery part with bioengineering that will give us the biocatalysts we need in industry,” Leschine said.
If microbes can consolidate parts of cellulosic ethanol production or even reduce the intensity of the pretreatment process, they can help solve the industry‘s largest hurdles: scale and cost.
“What biotechnology has done is, you can have an organism that takes all of the chemical reactions and makes them one process, reducing complexity,” said Justin van Rooyen, senior director of business development at Lebanon, N.H., cellulosic ethanol startup Mascoma Corp. “From a chemical industry point of view, this is a massive advancement.”
About 75 percent of Mascoma’s research effort is focused on bioengineering yeast to produce enzymes that will break down the cellulose before fermentation — eliminating the step of adding a cocktail of enzymes before the yeast. So far, the company has been able to increase the expression of enzymes by yeast 3,000-fold.
Waltham Technologies’ contribution to the biofuels space, oils and enzymes that can be used for biodiesel, is a by-product of its original goal to clean water with bluegreen algae. Ryan said she was looking at the bacteria’s excretions from digesting waste and discovered that with some manipulation energy products could be produced.
“If you’re from the life sciences side of biotechnology, you tend to think of bacteria as a low cost manufacturing platform — what else can we do with this?” Ryan said.
The company is still testing the bacteria’s ability to produce oils, which would power waste treatment plant systems, creating a closed loop system. Its fate is unclear, however, as there is no immediate successor to Ryan, and the company has yet to secure venture funding.
Yet the use of genetic engineering techniques in biofuels production is not confined to microorganisms. Agrivida Inc., a Medford biofuels startup, received nearly $4.6 million in U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E funding and $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to alter the genome of feedstocks that will essentially break itself down. The company is developing gene sets that, when triggered, will produce an enzyme that will degrade the plant’s cell walls, making it easier to ferment the sugars into ethanol.
While it is clear how biotechnology can advance the energy space, biofuels executives say developments in the industry have applicability in the larger biotech space. Myriant Technologies LLC in Quincy is developing enzyme and fermentation technology that can produce a variety of industrial chemicals, including lactic acid and succinate acid. Biofuels are in the blood of Myriant — its founder, Stephen Gatto, was an early member of BC International, the predecessor of Verenium Corp. And with the help of advancements in biofuels, the company is exploring biofuel production as well as shifting some of its industrial chemical feedstocks to other cellulosic crops.
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