ABF and Mascoma Corporation Collaborate on Enzymes in Biomass Ethanol Production
AB Enzymes, ABF’s enzyme company, will focus on managing the enzyme supply chain and on innovation in enzymes from Aspergillus and Bacterial sources.
25/07/08 Associated British Foods (ABF) and Mascoma Corporation have signed a strategic collaboration for the development of advanced conversion methods for use in the production of ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass, hardwood and sugar cane bagasse. Effective feedstock hydrolysis depends on many factors, including the right engineering, effective fermentation organisms, and tailored enzymes. Mascoma will focus on the engineering, fermentation organisms and process development, while Roal Oy, an ABF affiliated company, will focus on enzyme development from its unique Trichoderma base. AB Enzymes, ABF’s enzyme company, will focus on managing the enzyme supply chain and on innovation in enzymes from Aspergillus and Bacterial sources.
Cellulosic ethanol offers a potential solution to the world’s energy concerns. The development of effective, tailored enzymes solutions is critical to the long term success of the cellulosic ethanol industry, with enzyme costs being one of the key drivers of the industry’s economics. Roal Oy and AB Enzymes are able to leverage their substantial distribution networks and application know-how and expertise in support of this project. Roal’s R&D Director, Jari Vehmaanpera, said: ‘our platform based on Trichoderma technology is ideally suited to providing unique solutions that other platforms cannot. Our long time investment in Thermostable enzymes, developed for other industries, was a key reason for Mascoma to choose us as a partner. We believe that Mascoma will be one of the leaders in the cellulosic ethanol industry and we are excited to collaborate in this field. The future in Biomass ethanol looks very bright for us, given our strong network of collaborating companies and research partners”
ABF and Mascoma teamed up to leverage expertise and technologies that utilize elevated temperatures in the bio-ethanol process. The collaboration will result in a simplified simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process which requires less capital investment and incurs lower operating costs, due to the increased dry matter content in the process and a significant reduction in enzyme cost. The combination of novel technologies in pretreatment, thermophilic fermentation technologies, along with Roal Oy’s proprietary thermo-stable enzymes and state of the art enzyme manufacturing techniques uniquely qualify the collaborators to achieve this objective.
Roal Oy is active in the area of researching and developing, manufacturing and distributing enzymes for multi-functional purposes and has developed thermo-stable enzymes for the conversion of cellulosic materials into fermentable sugars. AB Enzymes is able to leverage its substantial distribution network and its product knowledge and expertise in support of this project.
ABF is a diversified business with activities in several fields linked to Biomass, Ethanol, and commercialisation of its by-products, comprising companies such as British Sugar, Illovo, AB Mauri (Yeast), Ohly (yeast extracts), and AB Agri (Animal feeds). ABF has established a joint venture build a wheat based bioethanol facility in Hull, and is intending to incorporate an ethanol facility in the proposed new Illovo sugar factory in Mali.
Mascoma Corporation is a leader in advanced low-carbon biofuels technology based in Boston, Massachusetts. Using proprietary microorganisms, enzymes and processes developed at the company’s laboratories, the privately held company is collaborating with research partners globally to develop and deploy a new generation of biocatalysts and low-cost processes for producing cellulosic ethanol from a range of non-food feedstocks.
